With Understanding Comes Appreciation
As a fan of Steven Wilson I was at the time very excited to hear that his newest work was going to be an album in the vain of the 70's prog rock. First of all I love good ol' progressive rock (King Crimson, Camel, Yes etc.), and when I saw the lineup SW had behind him, I knew this was going to be something special. Well, I was right. It was the most shining gem of the year 2013. If you really start to think about it, it is the best progressive rock album that has been made in ages, no kidding. We are used to the Wilson production and this is it at its finest. Porcupine Tree’s prog-prodigy Steven Wilson’s third solo album follows in the same vein of his previous musical work, but not in a literal sense. Staying true to the actual meaning of ‘progressive’, his approach to music and production remains to be in a perpetual, ever-changing state, so that each of his produced albums feature a slightly different and somewhat more matured sound. As you can probably guess by now, I am a big fan of his work and his overall sound-ideas. But nevertheless, higher expectations might make it tougher for him to impress me. In his previous albums Insurgentes and Grace for Drowning Wilson managed to create sonically surprising and incredibly dynamic pieces of music that I have never heard or could even think of before. But, can he do it again?