The Overview by Steven Wilson
I am going into this album completely cold. I haven't read anything about it. I am just going to listen to it and give my first impressions. Of course, first impressions are largely wrong when it comes to prog albums. It took me about three years to realise that Can-Utility and the Coastliners was one of the best Genesis songs, for example, after completely ignoring it. The first song is 'Objects Outlive Us' and it's twenty-three minutes long. First thing to say is that it's clearly Steven Wilson, with the complex harmonic turns and rhythms you expect. But there's something quite new about the vocal delivery. I can't quite pin it down yet, but it's something sharper, more focussed. Wilson is known for those beautiful washy vocal arrangements, but this is more direct. And it's great. The whole song is absolutely fizzing with musical ideas. In terms of the song's structure, it's more of the 'good bits stitched together' school of prog r...