"To The Bone" - 5th Steven Wilson Album, 8/18

Is that cover for real? It almost looks like a parody of the Hands. Cannot. Erase. cover!

 

Cover looks good, I don't see the problem.

 

I hope not, it is dreadful for my likes.

 

Sounds like the safest song I have heard him sing, Like you I will need more context with the album.

 

Ha! Great saying ... never heard that one before.

To be honest, it's refreshing to be able to say something bad about Steven Wilson ... I'm usually one of the many praising him immoderately in every thread. I think that what cynicism there's been in this thread is really about expectation management.

 

Is the hate for the cover

If you are talking about the climax, at home on the computer system I don't hear much post-mixing dynamic compression; but the treble seems a bit thin and forward. I would wait to hear the final version in the context of the album -more often than not, Steven mixes these kind of surges with an eye to the sound quality of the complete flow of the album.

 

I love that saying, it comes from the U.S. Army corps procedures for hanging. New rope was not used for hanging, it was boiled and then dried under tension to stop it coiling under weight. Though where the actual saying 'I think you would complain if you were hung with a new rope' comes from I am not certain although it is used for people who complain a lot.

 

Steven Wilson:

"
After many months of writing and recording, I’m pleased to finally announce details of my new album To The Bone, and a major European tour in early 2018 which includes a return to many of my favourite venues, including London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall. For my North and South American fans, expect to see further tour news soon.

To The Bone is due to be released on 18th August but is available now to pre-order in a variety of formats, including a special deluxe hard back 120 page book edition, which includes an exclusive full length CD of demos and unused songs, and a one-sided 7 inch vinyl single of a bonus instrumental song from the album sessions. Neither of these will be available anywhere else.

My fifth record is in many ways inspired by the hugely ambitious progressive pop records that I loved in my youth (think Peter Gabriel’s So, Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, Talk Talk’s Colour of Spring and Tears for Fears’ Seeds of Love). Lyrically, the album’s eleven tracks veer from the paranoid chaos of the current era in which truth can apparently be a flexible notion, observations of the everyday lives of refugees, terrorists and religious fundamentalists, and a welcome shot of some of the most joyous wide-eyed escapism I’ve created in my career so far. Something for all the family!"

 

Headphone Dust appears to have crashed; Burning Shed is up but not listing the limited edition set yet.

 

Steven Wilson

 

After several listenings of 'Pariah':

1- Sorry Steven. Man, I love you. I admire your work, but this time Ninet is there just because. Really. She sounds rough, with that GODAWFUL cliche in music that singing with strained voice gives "emotional" feel to the song. It's been done to death in music. Bulls***. This is the only version of the song we'll have, so she should sing the best way she can. Period. I can imagine the song without her, and it actually sounds better.
2- I miss Marco Minnemann
3- The music on the last part sounds compressed, digital, artificial-sounding, harsh and brittle. Not good at all. Drums in particular sounds so bad.
4- Really hope the rest of the album will be better!

 

I haven't listened to "Pariah" yet, but I'm looking forward to a pop oriented SW record. He has a very good ear for melody and I would welcome a change from the symphonic rock of the past three albums. The cries of "sell out" among the progheads are going to be amusing.

 

Insurgentes wasn't a prog album either!

Most of PT's catalogue wasn't prog.

The prog thing comes more from the bands he's remixed/remastered and his last 3 solo albums (H.C.E. less so) and, arguably, The Incident; though I thought that was the worst album he'd ever put the PT name to.

 

For the better part of the last decade, SW's solo work has been focused solely on progressive rock. I'm kind of half with you on the PT not being prog thing, but PT-certainly in the 90s and early 2000s-appealed mostly to prog rock fans. They performed at prog rock festivals. Their music was widely featured in prog rock magazines and catalogs. Once SW began to emphasize a heavier direction-I think his work with Opeth may have had something to do with that-PT became much more rock oriented.

 

Universal Music has preorders up for the limited edition. I haven't jumped yet ... I'm willing to take a risk and see which other retailers offer a price on this, and I dislike Universal.

 

Not to keep complaining, but I'm a little annoyed that the deluxe box doesn't contain LPs. I don't want to buy both and the description of the LPs say nothing of a download. Hmm.. perhaps the boxset is the way to go.

 

I know what you mean but even PT from Signify onwards had very few 'traditional' prog elements, it was just the (at the time, limited) audience that he'd found. I don't recall a lot of mainstream media attention until around the time of In Absentia.

But hey, I like pretty much everything he's ever done and will no doubt continue my SW related journey from ****ty pub gigs in the mid-late 90's until the present day. I thought that Albert Hall gig with PT would be the absolute peak of his popularity, how wrong I was!

 

I've jumped, as I've never found the prices on his limited edition stuff to vary much, and they sell out fairly quickly.

I'm still pissed off at missing the 'red' Anesthetize because I ummed and aahed before pulling the trigger and could only get the 'grey' one.

I'm kind of wishing I hadn't sold my Insurgentes box set too, but £400 was a ridiculous offer and paid for a quarter of my new road bike!

 

His box sets have never contained vinyl. He's probably more aware of his demographic than any other artist out there. He knows they'll double dip (and then pay for the inevitable re-releases down the line). A cynic would accuse him of cynically exploiting his market!

 

Ah I didn't realize that. I only recently (in the past year) got a record player after not having one for 10 years. So when he released The Raven and HCE I wasn't looking at media the same way as I am now. I think I'll get the deluxe.

 

You won't regret it in terms of an investment!

 

Perhaps this is a dumb question but what is the merit in offering Blu Ray and DVD of the same mixes in the same set? Why would you need both?

 

These sets are getting very pricey...well the shipping at least. $87Au for the set plus a whopping $62 shipping...I've got all the previous SW and PT boxsets but am having my doubts whether I'll pounce on this one.

 

OUCH!!! I was about to complain about shipping. I think I will shut up and be thankful

 

$55 for shipping to the US. Nope nope nope.