I’ve come to compare the name of Steven
Wilson to that of any big gaming corporations nowadays. You have many
franchises (Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield etc.) which, overall, offer a
great deal in terms of musical variety, yet they’ve all come to a point of
stagnation. Such is the case with this latest solo release (I don’t get why
they call it this way, there’s practically a full band behind it): polished to
the core, incorporating different elements with the precision of swiss
engineering, ‘The Raven That Refused to Sing’ runs the gamut like a well-oiled machine,
delivering the sound of a tightly calculated jam session. But it didn’t
impress me in any way.
With only six tracks that stretch close to
one hour, what we have here is something closer to a Porcupine Tree album. Gone
are the experimentations of the first two LP’s, the songs now have their
precise identity within the whole, contributing to the larger image rather than
focusing on themselves.
With ‘Luminol’, a strong opener, we are
taken through a suite of ups and downs only to culminate with the subdued
calmness of the title track, which is where we find the true monster behind
this album. Whereas most of the running time what we get is straight up ‘prog’ playing,
it is only on the last two closing minutes that we are treated to something
that I’ve never thought I’d see on a Steven Wilson album (either that or it’s
never been pushed to the front so bluntly), namely post rock style tremolo
picking. And that single moment is what makes me deeply curious about what
comes next, because it’s been a long time since a revelation.
To conclude, I’ll have to resort once more
to a comparison like the one mentioned in the beginning of this article: you
know the base formula, you find that expectations are met (but not exceeded),
yet you play it anyway, nod in approval, then take your place in the sofa and
wait calmly for the next release in the franchise.
Which may, or may not, bring something new
and interesting to the table.
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