Steven Wilson - To The Bone
 

Shit is good, son.

Don't think this'll beat Hand.Cannot.Erase, but this is coming close to AOTY for me.

i hate ninet tayeb with a passion.

i love steven wilson but at this point his music just sounds like polished autopilot melancholy rock.

he does it well, he's done it for 30 years, but it's a bit soulless. and i mean that non shitty-ly.

insurgentes i still liked a lot, btw. that record was weird and sprawling and it had heart.

the only part that makes this song worthwhile for me is that explosion into noise. i wish he still did more of that stuff.

i feel like many successful progressive artists become less "artists" and more "band directors" in their later years.

it's not so much about writing great songs that you're willing to fall on your sword for, but about coming up with clever themes for your next concept record, social-engineering your hired band and handle the management and the tour logistics etc etc. it's more like being a project manager at your own company than being a gritty, driving artist.

it's like the music becomes a streamlined line of work for them instead of being their escape or their art. Devin Townsend kind of got like this too in recent years. the thing about him and Steve here, is that they both keep putting out records that on the surface sound great and are as strong as ever, just because they're so experienced in making music. they've gotten efficient at it, they know how to produce it. but when you really hold it up to the light and pick it apart, you realize that it's just missing something.

it is still arguable, of course, that it's still "their art" because it represents who they are at that point in time - successful, satiated musicians. and that's cool. i dunno just thinking out loud here.

sorry andy.

btw still haven't listened to the new record. i was talking mostly about Raven and Hand Cannot Erase

His best album since Deadwing.

Can't listen to his music due to the cringe inducing lyrics. I've tried really hard to love Porcupine Tree but it's just music which sounds like it was polished to death in a studio.

It's true; the lyrics were often the weak point in PT's music. I do think he's gotten much better in that regards.

I hear what you're saying but... bleh. This isn't like BC and SP. He's still making good, relevant music to my ears. I don't think I'm scrutinizing as hard as you may be. It's all good.

Really surprised you didn't enjoy HCE or Raven though. I thought those were great fucking records, instant classics.

oh that's definitely not the point i was making - Steven Wilson is not in the same class (or fish baking tray) as Birry Corgman in that regard.

he never became a shadow of his former self or fell from grace like BC did. in fact, generally speaking, i can still listen to his records and appreciate some stuff about them. it's just that he's become comfortable in producing these consistent sounding records, that sound like more of the same in a good way (yes i know that sounds weird), but they're definitely not CLASSICS because they don't have that beautiful depth of a genuinely brilliant record that you can listen to a zillion times and still find new little subtle things about it that excite you. it comes, it goes, bada bing bada boom. it feels like he releases records not because he had something he really wanted to say or because he had some incredible idea or because he felt the beautiful breeze of inspiration - it's just his job.

but it's still very well produced, very well recorded, very well performed music.