Steven Wilson
To the Bone

When I listened to “Happiness III” in the recent EP, I said that Steven Wilson doesn't produce rubbish even when he creates a pop track. However, this was quite well-known; Wilson has never shied away from pop-friendly sounds and has demonstrated this on several occasions. Think of the Porcupine Tree albums “Stupid Dream” and “Lightbulb Sun,” as well as Blackfield, probably Wilson's lightest project.

“To the Bone” is not a big surprise in the choice of a lighter and simpler approach than usual, though it is surprising because it experiments with new sounds for Wilson, or rather vintage but surely new for his sound. He indeed takes inspiration from some experimental pop or progressive pop albums made in the '80s by names like Tears For Fears, Talk Talk, and Peter Gabriel. An '80s breath that integrates perfectly into the Wilsonian mood. Some sounds from that period blend perfectly with those typical of his productions, and as a result, everything sounds tremendously and calmly Wilsonian. Wilson's touch remains evident, and even those more vintage sounds are still reworked to the point of seeming entirely like a record made in our time. If in albums like “Grace for Drowning” and “The Raven That Refused to Sing” he managed to modernize and make the '70s sounds his own, here he perfectly achieves it with the '80s.

Influences can be glimpsed right from the first eponymous track, with those percussive effects, exotic keyboards, and that harmonica seeming really borrowed from Peter Gabriel's solo world music style. Tears for Fears can be perceived in the intensely growing crescendo of “Refuge,” a crescendo well fostered by increasingly powerful '80s keyboards and harmonica, a track that could easily be part of “The Seeds of Love.” It's not hard to recall crescendos like “Swords and Knives” or “Famous Last Words.” But it doesn't stop there because the pop duo's influence is also felt in the light refrain of “Nowhere Now,” those delicate guitars and barely tangible keyboards serving a smooth and relaxed melody that reminded me of tracks like “Advice for the Young at Heart” and especially “Goodnight Song.”

Very '80s sounds also in “Pariah,” with those sharp electronic keyboards this time serving a gathered and melancholic melody, reminiscent a little of some things done by Marillion, before bursting into a post-rock flavored tremolo. Slightly different sounds are found in “Song of I,” which even dives into trip-hop, with an evident nod to early Massive Attack; some sounds reminded me of those in “Safe from Harm.” However, the track that surprised everyone the most is certainly “Permanating,” which, with its disco music trend in ABBA style, aims to show that Wilson, with his class, can even allow a terribly catchy side without descending into mainstream shit-music.

However, there are also more strictly Wilsonian things in between: “The Same Asylum As Before” and “People Who Eat Darkness” recover some more easy tracks by Porcupine Tree during their 1999-2000 transitional period; “Song of Unborn” is quite close to the soft melodies of Blackfield; “Blank Tapes” highlights a certain ability to compose short but refined tracks; “Detonation,” on the other hand, seems to be a sort of “then and before” of Porcupine Tree, with the first half reprising the jagged sounds of the second phase and the second half reprising the psychedelic/ambient sound of the '90s productions.

In short, it's Wilson presenting himself with lightness but with class, looking back but also forward. “To the Bone” is definitely one of the albums of the year and will occupy a place of honor in my year-end chart.