Steven Wilson – To The Bone
It’s back to the roots for this entry. Wilson gave us the very first Album of the Week and we will get back to him once in a while. Today we have the Brit’s latest studio album (with another on announced for most probably next year), a venture into less complex but rather straight songs. Nonetheless it still bears the trademark of Steven Wilson’s work, that slight melancholy that does not drag you down but seems to walk a bit with you, when you’re down yourself. Some on the other hand are straighter though not pointless. We have aggressive tunes like „People Who Eat Darkness“, quiet and plain ones like „Pariah“ or „Blank Tapes“ (both beautiful duets with Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb), progressive monuments like „Detonation“ that are close to earlier songs like „Watchmaker“ or „Ancestral“, and then we have „Permanating“, a surprisingly optimistic in your face happy pop song that outraged the fans and seems to be Wilson telling them „F*** you purists and intellectual elitists, it’s my album, I do whatever I want!“ To The Bone is Wilson at his most versatile so far. A little less prog, more pop, full Wilson.