Steven Wilson
Grace For Drowning

It can't be said that Steven Wilson spends time twiddling his thumbs. This is already the third album he's released in 2011. Tireless, anyone who listens to Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, Bass Communion, No-Man, I.E.M. knows what I’m talking about: a work addicted.

This is a solo album, and Wilson's solo albums always serve as a release valve for inspirations or temporary projects that will remain confined to that album (at least so far it has been like this). For example, the previous Insurgentes was born from Wilson's listening to post-punk/shoegaze bands such as Flaming Lips, The Cure, Killing Joke, My Bloody Valentine, but above all Joy Division. Speaking of Grace For Drowning, Wilson aims for an album that pays tribute to Progressive Rock from the late 60s and 70s. Apparently, he let himself go because he proposed a double album.

The first thing to say is that although it's dedicated to the period of greatest prog splendor, this album is not at all derivative or citationist, even if it offers some hidden "tributes" to prog giants. Wilson managed to create a receptacle of his abilities, of many of the colors that his palette can use to compose a piece, and there are a surprisingly large number, in fact each of the album's pieces is peculiar, and this inexorably draws me to speak, as briefly as possible, about each of them.

I. Deform to Form a Star

(The two internal albums have titles themselves)

1- Grace for Drowning. The title track is an introduction, a simple and brief chorale that will certainly remind Introduzione by Premiata Forneria Marconi, in a rather emphatic way.

2- Sectarian. This track is very special. It is an example of Our Hero's new compositional style, offering even very symphonic pieces (with popularity came the opportunity to use many session musicians). The instrumental has among its ingredients Lark's Tongues in Aspic Pt.II and VROOM! by King Crimson, with a splash of THRAK!, all immersed in those green nebulous atmospheres that enveloped the pieces composed between Deadwing and Fear of a Blank Planet (Revenant). Also interesting is the fragment similar to Pictures/Lighthouse by Van Der Graaf Generator.

3- Deform to Form a Star. Easy to scream masterpiece listening to these seven minutes. Here we have the best Wilson, the one from Trains or Dark Matter. No citation, perhaps a tear from Gabriel's Genesis in the chorus. The second solo is splendid; it has the same style as that equally beautiful one in Where We Would Be (Lightbulb Sun).

4- No Part of Me. I need clarifications here. I've never heard anything like the beginning of this track, only a hybrid between Grandaddy and certain Radiohead with Apres-Mortes. After the short vocal part, it opens into a heavy metal riff, similar in all respects to the insistent ones in Anesthetize.

5- Postcard. This is the classic splendid pop track that Our Hero includes in every album (there isn't one that doesn’t have at least one fantastic pop piece, and often more than one). Noteworthy are the string sections (real ones!) that populate it and especially the very pleasant cello parts.

6- Raider Prelude. Placed in the penultimate position like Raider II of the other album, this piece can be said to capture the essence of Up the Downstair, especially of Siren and Monuments Burn Into Moments.

7- Remainder the Black Dog. A great track that comes to life from a claustrophobic piano loop. At first glance, the initial part can remind one of Opeth's Damnation, but if listened to more deeply, it emerges that it’s because both, the piece on one hand and the album on the other, draw heavily from the treasure chest of Italian Progressive Rock. In this case, ideas from Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, especially Il Giardino del Mago (self-titled), are borrowed. The usual filtered voice leads us to an invaluable, very short moment extremely characteristic of Van Der Graaf, with that unleashed sax and piano that for a moment seems to be handled by Banton (the magic is broken by the drums; Evans would never have played like this). Then a whirlwind of sounds (perhaps Kosmos Tours?) leads us, between bass, acoustic and keyboard interludes, to an electric-flute duel that concludes an intriguing piece.

II. Like Dust I Have Cleared from my Eye

1- Belle De Jour. Here, yes, Opeth. The ones from Heritage (after all Wilson mixed that album), particularly Marrow of the Earth. Steven has stated that for project intents this album can be considered part of a trilogy composed of Grace for Drowning, indeed Heritage, and the yet-unreleased Storm Corrosion project, also by Wilson-Akerfeldt (does another trilogy come to mind for anyone? Fripp-Eno-Bowie?). Curious then to note that another instrumental opening a Wilson piece is also in French (Intruder D’Or).

2- Index. Another piece of the bizarre style that Steven offered us on The Incident (the title track and Bonny the Cat), seen however through the lenses of Abandoner (Insurgentes).

3- Track One. Another one difficult to talk about. A peaceful acoustic track all whispers, it would seem. But Our Hero releases against us distortions that run aground on expansive time-dilating keyboards. It then gives way to a romantic solo influenced by the Latimer school.

4- Raider II. The effect of seeing the length of this track at the end of a double album (23:21) is similar to that of someone having Flicker land on them after a three-quarter-hour suite; it's a boulder. The fact that the first and last three minutes are in the classic “time filler” style certainly doesn't improve things. A snail-paced piano disperses its breath tentacles. Finally, an explosion (which, however, connects us to Sectarian) leaves space for a verse clearly inspired by Cirkus, from the Crimson King's Lizard album, then a section that can recall Slave Called Shiver leaves space for a splendid flute that doesn't seem like those of pieces like Arcadia Son by I.E.M. nor Ian Anderson, and already this is a big achievement. Then a rapid guitar riff opens us to a space dedicated to an alt sax. Wilson is not new to composing pieces for winds, amidst various collaborations with Travis, and it shows. Instruments welcomed my opinion very well in the album's sound. The sax that closes the piece in a magnificent way is fantastic. A valid piece, although with “collage” characteristics, but with somewhat excessive length.

5- Like Dust I Have Cleared from my Eye. The concluding one is another track without references. The solo and the chorus leave orphans at four minutes from Light Mass Prayer, and thus the album finally ends.

To conclude (you're tired, I know), a very varied album, although perhaps a bit lacking five, because like almost all double albums it's not very unitary and compact, besides being heavy at some points. But the imprint is that of the greats, and few artists could conceive an album with such a breadth of views. Lastly, remember a couple of things: Wilson has been self-producing for a lifetime, and he can do it like an Egyptian deity, his arrangements are something sublime, as is his songwriting, clear and devoid of frills. The artist offered us an overview of what he is capable of doing, and it's not a little. To be listened to several times.