Steven Wilson
The Overview

Announcing "two long suites" is akin to a declaration of war; it is a very heavy statement because it contains a rather onerous promise: to create something grand, epic, "total." When Steven Wilson put the idea of two long suites on the table, my mind immediately went to some of the craziest things done in the '70s. Many might think of Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" or "A Passion Play" (where the division into two parts was actually dictated only by the physical limitation imposed by vinyl), while I thought of even more bizarre things, like early Mike Oldfield productions, where each side intertwined numerous instrumental escapes, or krautrock productions, where it often happened to have two sides, each offering a uniform stream of daring experimentation and exploration.

And I expected this, also because Wilson, with his undeniable preparation, would undoubtedly have been capable of it; after all, he had already done something more or less similar with his Bass Communion project. But this, alas, does not happen. "The Overview" is not the crazy album I expected; on the contrary, it's an album far too composed. It's mainly the first of the two suites that suffers from staticity; almost its entire central body rests on a melody that's far too simple and catchy, light and soothing; for more than ten minutes, it's carried by the usual and unmovable rhythm almost typical of a folk ballad (not that it really is, huh) with the light and rarefied guitar weaving not-too-complicated patterns; a progression far too regular and redundant, without significant rhythmic upheavals and intensity, and occasionally adding some distorted bass or a slightly noisy and misleading guitar solo doesn't seem enough to liven up the architecture of the composition, which in the end can be described as a sort of long pop piece deliberately stretched out, with a long body, a long intro, and a long outro.

The second suite already has something more because Wilson dusts off certain electronic solutions and gets a little more whimsical with hallucinatory synth loops and crescendos of intensity. It's already quite the Wilson we like; it somehow lifts the overall judgment by quite a few points, but it doesn't completely erase the sensation of something missing, of not going beyond, of remaining somewhat standard.

I admit I was fearful already when the first announcements mentioned a return to typical Wilsonian prog-rock. I feared I would witness a nostalgic operation. And thinking negatively, let's say I hit the mark; Wilson merely went back but did not go too far forward, which is usually quite a sacred paradigm of his production and philosophy, but thanks to his cleverness, he managed to make everyone believe he did something revolutionary using the formula of the two suites as an advertising spot; who cares if these two suites are not endowed with great richness of inspiration; let's say he acted more like a visual merchandiser than a prog artisan. Paradoxically—if we were to take the definition "progressive" literally rather than consider it indicative of a genre with more or less defined characteristics—there was more of a prog mindset in albums like "To the Bone" and "The Future Bites" than there is in this; they were pop albums, but paradoxically they dared more, looked more forward, this instead looks back, it's prog only by genre but not by approach.

Another consideration can be made about the choice to return to more natural and less electronic instrumentation. Recently Wilson had favored synths and electronics because he felt more comfortable composing with them and felt less inspired when doing it with guitars... well, I'd say it shows here, we have quite the proof, the parts that intrigue the most here are precisely the synth parts.

But you might be wondering: Is this a slating? A cross-over? Well, after all this discussion, I surprise you and say no. Because damn it, it's always Steven Wilson; he's still a master who has created his own melody and world, and here he still brings it all to light, doing it with the usual skill in a world where the level on commercial stages falls lower and lower. The only thing is that much more was expected, also because all this comes shortly after something incredible and kaleidoscopic like "The Harmony Codex." Personally, in the ranking of solo Wilson, I place "The Overview" at the last spot, but it's a last place with dignity!