Alternative Album Review : Steven Wilson – To the Bone

For some time I have been looking at to do some reviews on albums but probably not from artists your have heard of before. I do not listen to the radio, as day after day I hear the same old repeats to the point of, ‘I never want to hear this song again!’

It’s not that radio songs are bad, but after hundreds of listens they simply become stale.

Source - YouTube Still Capture.

So I am going to start a Steemit incentive. Pick an album you know inside out and that is a little obscure, alternative or progressive and write a complete and full review about it.

Choose at least FOUR songs from the album and add YouTube links so we can get an idea of whether we as the listeners can hear something that we may like.

Don’t choose the likes of ‘Thriller – Michael Jackson’ or ‘Rumours – Fleetwood Mac’. Yes, they are great be they are not alternative enough to qualify.

As long as this incentive doesn’t go completely crazy and overtake ‘blog’ as a leading tag, I will give any DECENT album review with that uses the tag name of #alternativereview a 100% up-vote as an incentive for your writing of it.

My full vote at this current time of terrible STEEM prices is only $0.28 but it’s maybe enough to get some of you writing. I also can’t guarantee that my VP will be at 100% at vote time but it will make a difference to your total vote value.

I am looking for quality writing material; something that others can open and maybe find something they like. This is what Steemit is about.

Feel free to use my review of ‘To the Bone’ as a template for your hopefully upcoming submissions.

‘To the Bone’ is the FIFTH studio album by the multi-talented Steven Wilson and takes a rather different slant than the previous four in terms of direction. More ‘Pop’ would be a good word and more accessible would be another I would use.

Source

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Steven Wilson and am always on the lookout for new songs that he releases and so I had great hopes for this album.

It did not disappoint but I knew I had to expect something different from the excellent and much more progressive sounds of ‘Hand, Cannot, Erase’. More information about ‘To the Bone’ can be found here.

I’m listening to each song while writing this review. It seems a good idea to refresh my mind to those small details!

I will now provide an opinionated synopsis of the track listings from ‘To the Bone’ and add some links to some of the better songs.

"To the Bone" 6:41

The title track of an album and first song should be a good one. It’s really the gateway to the music fest that is about to accost your ears. Steven hired the services of legendary Harmonica player ‘Mark Feltham’ and his eerie contribution to this song can be heard in the first 45 seconds to great effect.

This song is a more mainstream song that I have grown accustomed to from Steven, with some progressive overtones throughout. I love the way that that Harmonica keeps coming back again and again. The song turns dreamy close to the end in typical Wilson fashion.

This is great music and a fantastic opening song. 8/10.

"Nowhere Now" 4:03

I was under the impression that this song had been released as a single as there is an official video for it. My assumption was not correct though looking at the Wikipedia entry. "Nowhere Now" sounds like a single to me, and should be more accessible listening to the uninitiated. 7.5/10

"Pariah" 4:46

Pariah features Ninet Tayeb on co-vocals and Steven seems to have taken a liking to this Israeli female vocalist. She certainly adds something to his songs, and this ballad duet still sends chills down my spine when listening. Steven tells us he’s ‘tired of Facebook’ in his lyrics, maybe he should try Steemit! 7/10.

The song ‘Pariah’ was featured on the BBC breakfast show lasy year and during the interview, one of the presenters asked Steven, ‘So there are no words?’. His bemused answer was along the lines of, ‘Well that is an instrumental section’, and you can see he is less than happy. Are these people brain-dead or something?

Here is the clip. It may not work in all world territories.

"The Same Asylum as Before" 5:14

OK, so I have already listed several videos so I will abstain on this song lest this becomes a YouTube link article only. This song was released as a single but the video is conspicuously missing from YouTube. There is an official video but it has been kept under wraps and is only shown at his concerts. Steven explained this when I attended his last one.

I feel this song could quite easily fit on a Porcupine Tree album from the ‘Stupid Dream’ era. It’s quite rocky and very progressive in nature yet accessible enough to merit being a single.

We get some falsetto from Steven too, but this is not the only song on the album to feature these types of vocals. Listen for those Gilmour like guitar sounds in the middle of the song. 7.5/10.

"Refuge" 6:43

‘Refuge’ is a great example of a build up song. It is about the refugee plight from Syria and surrounding countries. This is a moody, beautiful and explosive piece when it finally gets going.

How he makes that Harmonica sound like a guitar I will never know? Listen to it and you will hear what I mean.

I found this video that someone had made that really brings home the reality that these people have had to face. I was genuinely bubbling up while watching it. Steven should adopt this video for his song, it really fits. 9/10.

"Permanating" 3:34

So this is the pop song that caused quite a stir when released as a single. Steven describes it as a combination of 70’s Abba and ELO, both artists who I absolutely adore. ‘Permanating’ is indeed a pop song and a damn good one too. Some of his fans saw this as a possible sell-out. Was he trying to gaining a different audience?

That notion was squashed as the song was pretty much ignored which is a real shame.

This guy could have written some epic’s if he would have been around in 1980. Today’s younger audience will probably not appreciate this, as it does sound like it’s from another era. 7.5/10.

"Blank Tapes" 2:08

Another collaboration with Ninet Tayeb, and a quiet one at that. It’s a nice enough song I suppose, albeit a little short. Ninet sounds a little croaky on this one; maybe all those cigarettes are having an effect on her voice. 5/10.

"People Who Eat Darkness" 6:02

This is the rocky song and it’s supposed to get the crowd rocking? I have to say it’s not one of my favourites but you may think otherwise. This is not to say it’s boring or bad, but that the other songs on this great album are mostly better. 6/10.

"Song of I" 5:21

Steven hosted another duet with a female vocalist by the name of ‘Sophie Hunger’ for this very dark affair of a song. It was released as a single, but I would not say it is single material. Quite different from the other songs on the album, this disturbing and moody piece does getter better the more you listen to it. 6.5/10.

"Detonation" 9:19

I would give ‘Detonation’ the joint crown song of the album except for it simply drags on too long. After a very strange start, the melancholy overtones hit you and then that beat starts. This is a driven song once it starts with some great guitar work and horror sounding ‘voices’.

The problem is that it simply runs out of steam around 5:30. I would like your opinions on this, as after this time period the song does little for me. 9/10 (until 5:30).

"Song of Unborn" 5:55

A very fitting song for the end of the album that is both emotional and lethargic. Don’t expect a standard song, there are a lot of quiet parts and subtle sections, and you will need to pump that volume to hear all of the intricacies. 7.5/10.

But wait, there’s a Deluxe Edition Bonus disc with a bunch of demos and more importantly THREE more songs. I wouldn’t normally include these but one is exceptional and merits a mention.

"Ask Me Nicely" 3:53

I have tried to get into this song but it really doesn’t do it for me. This is a mish-mash of ambient sounds with some singing which develops to a beat which doesn’t quite fit into my hearing system. Reading opinions on the internet, some fans love it, but this one does not. 3/10.

"Northern Cyclonic" 3:50

Is this instrumental pierce some kind of chant or rhythmic drum beat? I suppose it’s quite hypnotic in its own way but I do see the song as filler and really nothing more. 4/10.

"A Door Marked Summer" 7:41

Which bring us to this stunning song and the reason I added these extra ones. Why this was omitted from the album I can only guess, maybe the theme does not fit? It has it all; a banjo driven harmony section, a very 70’s progressive section that reminds me of Genesis’, ‘Watcher of the Skies’, an easy listening melancholy section that might be termed as ‘supermarket music’ and then a great outro with fantastic guitars to complete.

Even if you have listened to this album you may not be aware of this hidden gem which is a mandatory listen, and certainly the most diverse and progressive song on the album. 9/10.

My overall opinion regarding ‘To the Bone’ is positive. I still listen to it every now an again, although it doesn’t quite live up to the high standards of ‘Hand, Cannot, Erase’, or ‘The Raven that Refused to Sing’.

There is enough progressive content included to just about satisfy any prog-head, but it leans toward the pop side in some parts. Saying that, the album is certainly not in the category of mainstream music. I may review these other aforementioned albums at a later date.

All pictures are sourced from the public domain and cited, some are from YouTube stills.
Guitar Image courtesy of http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/16642