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| Artist | Steven Wilson |
| Title | The Overview |
| Type | Album |
| Released | 14.03.2025 |
| Genre | Prog |
| Style | Space rock |
| My rating | (5/10) |
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Tracklist:
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Credits:
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Ok so let's just outright say that this is not a good record. After I've already heard that there will be only 2 tracks and album will feature some kind of "back to the roots" (roots=prog) attitude, my expectations were surprisingly low. I've absolutely loved the run of his last 3 albums: "To The Bone", "The Future Bites", "The Harmony Codex" - they were fantastic. I really enjoyed the musical direction Steven has taken there and it's such a shame we're virtually back to this weirdly dull and stale meandring...
I literally feel scammed in regards to the sound of "The Overview". Yeah, this album has been advertised as a proggy, conceptual journey, but both Steven and journalists/reviewers praised it's dip in electronic/ambient soundscapes and further exploration of "space rock" stuff not unlike early PT records ("The Sky Moves Sideways", "Up The Downstair"). The latter remark could not be further from the truth. There's exactly zero interesting electronic experimentation moments that Steven make us used to on his recent albums. Yeah there's this 4-minute section of quirky beep-boop alien noises superimposed with 808 drum hits (which is neat by the way! Probably the best part of this album!) and the soothing ambient outro, both of which are parts of the title track, but there are literally only non-rockish moments here. And I absolutely hate it! Steven is known for his very broad array of influences and his music never fails to push the music forward with vibrance, variety and interesting experiments. On previous albums there were moments of classic prog too, but they were creative, coherent and very extraordinary! We had "Detonation" - a 10-minute weird and creepy riffage, a dance music inspired "Personal Shopper" with spoken word passages and eargasm inducing "Impossible Tightrope", full of inspirations from electronica, spiritual jazz, and prog-adjacent classics like Pink Floyd or King Crimson. Here we have 2 track, that I cannot even describe like that because they are so forgettable, uninteresting and bland. I just feel dissappointed and dissatisfied.
I think this album would really benefit from a different kind of "back to the roots" attitude - the one that we've heard on "Harmony Codex" album. It was full of dark and mysterious experimentation akin to the vibe of his early works like "Insurgentes" and "Grace For Drowning". So instead of doing prog wankery over again, I think Steven should focus on his roots in trance music, krautrock and psycho-electronic quirkyness of affore-mentioned early PT albums like "The Sky Moves Sideways", "Up The Downstair" or "Voyage 34". This aspect of his music has been severely unexplored over the years, and we know that he likes such sound - he explicitly expressed his fondness of "Voyage 34" and other early PT works, so why the hell he refuses to give us more of that instead of doing prog that has been done better a 100 times, including by himself.
Anyway, lets talk about the tracks. "Objects Outlive Us" begins very strangely - with a falsetto passage that then turns into a cadence that gives off strong "Hand Cannot Erase" vibe. Here we can actually hear that Steven is almost 60 years old! His voice sounds very weary here for me, I dunno why. I like that part that sounds like pure Porcupine Tree, but the lyrics are cringey af, although that was to be expected. I gotta appreciate that the collection of riffs and solos that comes next is creative and jagged/dissonant, so it kinda explores new and eerie grounds when it comes to harmony. I like Randy's guitar solo - it sounds cool and fits the vibe. The final part of the song is cool too, but it comes out of nowhere. And this seems to be the main problem of this album - those so called "20 minute tracks" are not really tracks, but rather a collection of smaller musical vignettes, that don't flow together, do not complement each other and stand for more on each own that the sum of their parts. The tracks feel jagged, clunky and the overall listening experience is severly impacted - it just feels weird.
The second track is much better in my opinion. The Autechre-style intro is nice, like I said - it's probably my favourite movement on the entire LP, but it feels entirely disconnected from the rest of the song. The spoken word stuff is cringe and corny, but I don't mind it that much you know... The chord progression that comes next is very "Stupid Dream"-like and again, comes out of nowhere, so I'm not a fan. I like the odd-time part tho, with it's dark bassline and explosive sax solo that fades into the ambience of the outro...
One thing that I really like about this album is how it really sounds like space. There are a lot of little moments, like subtle 2-chord little slides during "Meanwhile" part that sounds like star twinkles or meteors on the night sky. The "Heat Death" part sounds like a literal heat death, with it's collapse from melancholic sax solo into the darkness of twisted and low detuned guitar noise. And there are a lot more of moments jak these - this record sounds like a catalog of synesthetic space sounds, which I really like.
That being said, the album isn't a pleasant listen, but there's a plenty of redeeming moments that carry it. But we all know that Steven can do better and I hope he will on his subsequent releases.