Alternative Weekend: Focus on ‘Steven Wilson'

I have been posting most weekends using @detlev’s #metalweekend tag, but my main love of music is progressive and alternative music. Some of my posts have included these songs, but I feel they are not keeping with the spirit of metal.

I will continue to post article’s using #metalweekend occasionally but feel I have more to offer regarding these other genres that I am more familiar with.

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Introducing #alternativeweekend. Post an article that highlights THREE great songs that are either progressive or alternative and use the tag #alternativeweekend or use the ‘Focus on’ series if you like. There are no rules, just make your own!

If you have a short story or something to offer regarding an opinion on your songs, then share it with us!

After writing the Opeth, 'Focus On’ last week I’m back into ‘prog mode’ and who better to write about than my hero Steven Wilson again. I was hoping there would be some news about new material, but I am not seeing any yet.

However, I have no doubts he will be putting together songs for the next album to supersede the contestable 'To the Bone' album in which his fan base was somewhat split.

I won't be writing about this album as I did a very comprehensive review of the full album some time ago. Instead, I would like to highlight some of the more accessible songs from the previous albums.

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If there is anyone who is keeping the prog genre alive it is this guy. You can hear it all through his music and it reminds me of the great days from the '70s when this kind of sound was more accepted, albeit by a selected type of audience.

Before ‘To the Bone’, Steven released FOUR full albums and a kind of half album in the form of 4.5 or (Four and a Half).

This one was not up to the quality of any of the others but still held some great gems.

The songs I present you today you mind find a little easier to listen to. I know I have a habit of picking obscure stuff and am mindful of that.

Steven Wilson – Harmony Korine (Insurgents – 2008)

Coming from listening to the back catalogue of his old band, Porcupine Tree I found 'Insurgents' dark, strange and very inaccessible.

It sounded nothing like 'Fear of a Blank Planet' or the forthcoming 'The Incident' and I found a very different set of sounds and noises to get my head around.

That is except 'Harmony Korine' which I loved from the first listen. If there was ever a single, then this was it.

It’s still dark and moody like the rest of the album and is tagged with this very strange video but it is accessible.

Steven Wilson – Index (Grace for Drowning – 2011)

In 'Grace for Drowning' I found yet another album I initially struggled with. I could hear bits of Insurgents and yet this was a little more accessible in the form of more songs that I quickly bonded with.

Unlike Insurgents, there are several songs which I could have picked and this is one of the more peculiar ones.

Having what sounds like a 'machine gun' in your recording doesn’t sound like a great idea, but it somehow fits the song Index.

Like many of Wilson's songs, it tells a story, this time of an obsessive collector of junk and rubbush. He played this live at the Hand Cannot Erase concert in Manchester (Jan ’16) and that performance still sticks in my mind; simply incredible.

Steven Wilson – Drive Home (The Raven that Refused to Sing – 2013)

With an album title like that it just makes you interested to hear what it's all about. This is undoubtedly Mr. Wilsons' finest album at least for me and his most progressive material.

At this point, he started to make videos based on cartoons that tell the story of the song. Drive Home is story based and tells of loss and death.

It’s not an unusual topic by any means from the master of moodiness and the cartoonish video suits the song very well.

Listen for that fantastic solo at the end by Guthrie Govan. He was asked to hold back his fondness for going guitar solo crazy and did a great job.

Steven Wilson – Routine (Hand Cannot Erase – 2015)

During the 'Hand Cannot Erase' Concert Steven confessed to his audience that this was the most miserable depressing song he had ever written.

By god, it does get the emotions churning watching this cartoon video, this time of a widow who has lost her family and is in denial of what has happened.

Steven shares lyrics with very gifted Ninet Tayeb on this and some other songs on this fantastic album.

The song is very progressive as it weaves a tale and climaxes with Ninet singing her heart out and sounding not too dissimilar to Pink Floyd's, 'The Great Gig in the Sky'' with that final agonising scream.

Steven Wilson – My Book of Regrets (4.5 – 2016)

I was a little disappointed with 4.5. It is a selection of ‘B-sides' so I guess I shouldn't be, but there are a few bum tracks such as ‘Vermillioncore' which he insists on playing live at every gig.

My Book of Regrets is the first and, in my opinion, the best track on this short album.

Listening to it strikes of 'Hand Cannot Erase', and you can hear distinctly that it is or was a product of that era. At over 9 minutes the song contains lots of that lovely ‘progginess' that we have come to expect from the new master.

Steven Wilson's latest album is more pop-oriented than his previous ones. He could be one hell of a writer for other artists if he chose to pursue this line of business, but I doubt that will happen.

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Personally, I would love it he would once again revisit the metal side or his work in the forms of 'In Absentia' or 'Deadwing'.

Who knows what he will come up with next, he always seems to do something different and surprise us.