Steven Wilson starts recording a new album: "The Future Bites" (29th January 2021)

I've bought To The Bone after growing to like this album. I dont think TFB has got the substance of a lot of stuff he's done, but I enjoy it a lot.

 

YouTube link to a “Making Of The Tastemaker” video including a link to download the song for free in mp3 or FLAC.



What a wonderful gesture.

 

Couldn't disagree more. TFB strikes me as Wilson's most self-assured work in a long time. I find his vision to be consistent and well executed, both lyrically and musically.

It's far from my favorite Wilson solo release--despite having two or three tracks that rank among his best, taken as a whole it might actually be my least favorite post-PT work--but I don't ascribe that to any sort of struggle or lack of vision.

 

Despite not planning to get a new receiver that can do Dolby Atmos decoding until later this year, an opportunity came up to get a mint condition last generation Yamaha RX-A1070 at a superb price so I bought it. I got everything setup and balanced with it today. I now have a 5.1.2 setup with the two left and right overhead speakers. The first Atmos release I played was The Future Bites album, and not a movie.

I must say it is kind of disorienting at first hearing parts of the songs drop in from above. It is a different experience from the 5.1 specific mix. I would not say the Atmos track is necessarily better than 5.1 after just one listen, but it does present a different take on the album. It's actually cool that I can listen to two different flavors of a surround mix of the same album now.

 

So... Steven Wilson had flown under my radar..
Porcupine Tree had flown under my radar

In the 80s, I was listening to The Smiths, New Order, Depeche Mode, Cure, Pixies, Replacements, etc.
In the 90s, I was listening to Suede, Blur, Pulp, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, etc.
I recognized the album covers from frequenting indie shops but never bothered.

So I saw the SuperDeluxeEdition (Paul's) unboxing and based on what I learned, I took a chance on the red vinyl.

I dig this record.
I'm learning that I'm not supposed to.
"It's not prog enough! What have you done to my precious Steven Wilson!" and all of that...
Perhaps because I didn't have a sample of his past works or any sort of expectations, I ended up digging it...

My only complaint, and this may be off-base, someone tell me if I am crazy... but the idea of "personal shopper" feels very familiar... like it was borrowed from a Roger Waters solo song.
The whole Anti-capitalism, you don't need "stuff" message...
Am I wrong?

 

I think Roger Water's tends to write without Steven Wilson's self awareness. Some of the lyrics/soundbites on Personal Shopper come off a little smug, even though they are self-deprecating. Musically (I've said elsewhere) it reminds me of No.1 In Heaven - the Sparks album produced by Giorgio Moroder. The humour fits that album as well (Sparks used comedian Peter Cook for the album promotion, in a similar way to SW using Elton John on this album).

No.1 In Heaven Limited Reissue Vinyl LP - Sparks

 

IMO:
Waters complains (I like Waters, to be clear), Wilson observes, and in the specific case of Personal Shopper, he does so with a sense of humor. Far from being anti-capitalist, Wilson has confirmed in several interview comments about Personal Shopper that it applies to him as well - this is what people do (and that's the song).

The other thing that may be getting lost in Personal Shopper: Elton's secondary comments that belie the insecurities and psychology underlying at least some of our gratuitous consumption: self-esteem, self-defense, self-indulgence, self-control, etc. I think, for what initially seems like a shallow piece about shallow pieces, Personal Shopper is pretty interesting.

 

This is both good and bad. Good in that there is a good chance you will like a lot more of the music he has put out. Bad because there is about 30 years of output from a highly productive individual to catch up on. There is also Blackfield, No-Man and Bass Communion to explore.

 

Tell me about it: I discovered Marillion in 2007 and the Greater Steven Wilson Universe in 2009 and still haven't caught up on either.

 

I finally received the box set yesterday, and opened it up tonight...to find that two of the four discs had dislodged and were freely floating around the box, scratched to ***k. Super bummed, but at least the Blu-Ray (one of the two free range discs) seems to play with no problem.

And of course I had to play “this disc intentionally left blank” just because.

 

I discovered Marillion through Napster in college and SW soon after and I still feel like I’m playing catch-up even 20 years later.

 

We share this opinion although Waters does complain with a sense of humor at times.

 

Enjoying the new album tremendously. The arrangements seem more complexe and definitely more consistent than To the Bone. Sound quality is also excellent.

 

A What's in my Bag episode with SW.

 

Having listened to the album a bit, I thought now as good a time as any to bore and burden one and all with my thoughts on The Future Bites (and this turned into quite the ramble):

[NOTE: all of the following is IMO, which shouldn’t be necessary to say, but is]

Part 1:
Some basics:

I bought the deluxe edition; I’ve listened to the regular CD and the CD of bonus songs extensively; I’ve listened to the instrumental disc only once; I’ve watched the videos on the Blu-Ray but haven’t made use of any of the other material there (I essentially have no sound system; it’s laptop speakers and phone earbuds for me).

I do not regret, even a little, spending $129 on the deluxe edition.

I consider GFD/Raven/HCE to be Wilson’s “golden three;” I thought To The Bone (while an excellent album) was a noticeable drop-off from that level of quality; I think there was an even bigger drop-off from To The Bone to The Future Bites.

Right about now, I may be coming across as “Mr. Prog,” for whom anything remotely accessible is to be shunned, or at least safely blended with things unsafe for ordinary radio. While it is true that I believe you can’t fit 8 minutes of greatness into 3 minutes, and my favorite bands/artists are Marillion, Steven Wilson, Pink Floyd, Tool and Rush, I also listen to Duran Duran (and have for almost 40 years), Guns N' Roses, The Cult, and plenty of other random things that haven’t scared playlist programmers.

Stating at the outset that the magic of music is completely subjective, for me, the magic that is all over Wilson’s golden three and makes several appearances throughout To The Bone rarely appears in The Future Bites. I generally enjoy all of the material (with one exception) and the overall sound (like a fluorescent-lit chrome ice cube; really, the sonic equivalent of an Apple store (it’s fitting that the TFB store in the Personal Shopper video is such a store)), and I suppose it’s a testament to how well Wilson scratches my musical itch that I’m fine with spending $129 on what is, for him, middle-of-the-road material.

I don’t quibble with Wilson’s approach to creation; I believe that he (and all artists) should constantly (and only) engage in full, balls-to-the-wall pursuit of whatever excites them at that moment (it’s fine that, for Wilson, it’s something different every time, and also fine that, for many ordinary bands, it’s the same thing every time – if it fires you up, GO!). This is probably why an album I’ve called “middle-of-the-road” still somehow feels fresh and necessary and not like a failed attempt to do something else (as with bands who do the same thing every time with diminishing returns). That Wilson generates results like this reminds me of how a favored author can do a thousand-page epic, or a quiet short story, or a small-scale novel, and while you have your favorites, none of them feels less than worthwhile; they all felt necessary, as none makes a decent replacement for the others.

At this point, some may be thinking that such a fanboy am I that I’ve virtually made an art form of turning my disappointment in TFB into a testament to Wilson’s greatness – but the thing is, I’m not shy about what I don’t like (keep reading), and while I do really want something I like as much as I loved the golden three, TFB doesn’t actually disappoint me, it just is what it is.

to be continued...

 

Part 2:

As for how it all hits me, I will switch to “running diary” mode:

In the beginning, there was Personal Shopper, and I liked it. I liked that it combined a cool beat with ominous sounds and odd lyrics, and if the product list seemed trite, the counterpoints (self love, self respect, self defense) immediately highlighted (highlit?) the psychological pain points underlying much of consumerism, and suddenly that cool floaty tech music feels ominous and disorienting. Definitely no disappointment here, but I still didn’t think it was as good as anything at all on GFD or Raven, and was only better than one song on HCE (the title song HCE, which is as disposable and unremarkable as anything Wilson has ever done), and maybe better than 3 or 4 things from To The Bone.

Then, there was King Ghost, but only for a moment – and I was one of those who missed out on its brief initial appearance.

Eminent Sleaze followed, and for the first time ever, here was a Wilson song I didn’t like [note: many take time to sink in, but I don’t actually dislike them at first encounter]. My reaction? “How could he??? Man, he has lost the plot – I’m not preordering this one! Doesn’t he know only 20-year-olds can make this kind of music?? Why doesn’t he stop trying to imitate everyone else???”

Nah…my actual reaction was, “well, it finally happened, but good for him – it has real personality and fits in with everything he’s been saying about the album – and he can succeed on his own terms without making something I like” (which is the approach I have toward the larger musical world, FYI; for example, I’m not a Paul McCartney fan, but he’s a nice guy and I’m happy he’s still making albums and enjoying the process of creation – he was born for it).

I have more to say about Eminent Sleaze, but a brief digression: does everyone recall the slightly off-putting video for Song Of I? I made the mistake of having that video be my very first listen of that song, and it didn’t help much; it was only later, listening without the video, that I saw that it was actually quite like Index (which I really like), but about a different kind of obsession. With this experience in mind, upon Eminent Sleaze’s release I avoided the video and went with audio only (I think I downloaded the audio file from the TFB site, to which I had access via my preorder). I thus found myself having listened to it without enjoying it, but still curious about the video, so I watched it…and enjoyed the video…and suddenly the song sounded interesting to me and not actually bad…and eventually I grew to like it (hurrah for the adventure!).

I think next was King Ghost (take two). At the time, it was my clear favorite of the new tracks, with moody atmosphere and lyrics, interesting sound, etc., but nowhere near Wilson’s top gear.

Next was 12 Things I Forgot, to which my response was, “nice song, but so what?” A very pedestrian, basic song; enjoyable, but forgettable – not something I spend money to obtain (by the way, when we talk “Wilson pop,” let’s hear it for Waving – that song is a goddamn joy to listen to). I suppose this at least made me appreciate King Ghost more.

That leaves the final pre-album release: Man of the People, which I thought was also better than 12 Things, and a decent track, but not incredibly special.

to be continued...

 

Part 3:

At this point I looked at the album’s final track list and saw that I’d heard more songs (5) then remained for me to hear (4), and that the 4 I hadn’t heard were two opening songs and two closing ones. The fact that the first two were connected seemed an interesting concept album-type of thing (can’t miss!) and what I’d heard about the final track being one of his powerful closers was also a positive (I figured Follower was the only one to worry about). My hopes were high, especially since I was hoping those 4 songs could elevate the 5 I’d already heard, which weren’t top Wilson material.

What I got was not what I wanted, but perhaps what I should’ve expected: Unself was fine but barely there (in length and substance), and Self was…okay, but just okay, and Follower was pretty much the same (Self and Follower were upbeat, crisp, pulsing if not raging, balls of energy – fine, but nothing more). Count of Unease was better than those three, but still, nowhere near the likes of Song of Unborn ("don't be afraid to die"...goosebumps), Raven (the song), or Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye. So there I was after my first listen: not a masterpiece, or even an excellent album, but a collection of good songs with a few that were slightly better. I listened to it maybe two more times over my first two days with it, with no real change (often music sets better with me with repeated listens). Then, I tried something different.

I’d noticed that Self, Eminent Sleaze, and Follower destroyed the momentum of the album for me because I enjoyed them so much less than the other songs, which (by comparison) were now feeling much more Wilsony to me, so I decided to accelerate my acclimation to them by listening just to those three, plus Move Like A Fever (I hadn’t listened to the bonus CD at this point, but knew the longer version from the B Sides EP, and I liked it pretty much as much as those other three, which is to say, it was just okay – kind of a herky-jerky, modern thing that made noise). This step generated other types of contrast; Follower suddenly stood out as having its own weird personality that emerged in its second half (I’m not sure how to describe this), and Move Like A Fever was a dark and menacing, lurching thing that I could finally recognize for the cool song that it was. Eminent Sleaze could be described in much the same terms (dark/menacing/lurching), and now felt like a full thing and not merely an oddity. Self was the last of the bunch for me, but at least now it didn’t stand out like a sore thumb, and it was actually enjoyable…but man, if only he could’ve left those do-do-do-DO-doos out (I will never enjoy those).

Anyway, after running through a few cycles of Self/Eminent Sleaze/Follower/Move Like A Fever, I would turn to the things on the album I’d skipped, and play Unself, King Ghost, 12 Things, Man of the People, Count of Unease (I left Personal Shopper out of this round because it didn’t fit with the more relaxed tone and because I’d already heard it one million times). Now, this sequence was almost worth the term “revelation” – I am now fully obsessed with King Ghost and Man of the People, Count of Unease has stepped up, and even 12 Things is, well, a bit better than it had seemed before. So now, I have a full album that I like – yet one that still lags behind To The Bone, let alone the golden three (King Ghost may be my favorite song here, and it doesn’t rank with anything on Raven or GFD). The album, as an album, feels more special and compelling than any of its songs; is this successful marketing? Or perhaps just my inability to narrow down on what it is that I do like about it?

to be continued...

 

Part 4:

Those are my thoughts on the main album as a piece of music, but to focus on the lyrics and concept a bit: Wilson has talked about the internet age’s impact on people, and I see a bit more, something a bit different, in TFB. Consider that a person has a true inner self as well as an external shell they build which does two things: protect/conceal the inner self and broadcast a different self to the external world (to be clear, this is not my insight; it is my description for something that already exists in human behavior). There are a million manifestations of this: if you shower and shave before a date; if an insecure person becomes a bully; too many to name. Anyway, please keep this basic framework in mind – the inner self, the shell, the outer self, as well as the consequences of the shell (antisocial behavior, psychological damage, bad relationships, etc.) – all of TFB concerns one or more of these things, as the songs vary between impersonal/superficial and human/vulnerable (the interior requiring protection, embellishment, support, concealment, the unseen self that builds the seen self):

- Unself: about the inner self, but really the turmoil that makes the shell and outer self inevitable (“all hail to love and love is hell” – as if to say there is no choice but to sail the rough seas)

- Self: the shell/the outer self (this one’s pretty obvious)

- King Ghost: the need for the shell to conceal the imperfection of the inner self with the outer self (Wilson himself said “the idea of the King Ghost being the inner you that you’d like people to see rather than the reality”)

- 12 Things I Forgot: a confession to the act of pretense (“there’s so many things that I pretend to you that I’m not”) and admission of wrongdoing (“I forgot what it was that I was,” “you’ll never begin to forget,” “what I’ve done to all of the people that gave me their love”)

- Eminent Sleaze: now this guy feels no regret and loves life; he has perfected the shell and recognizes the significance of no human beings other than himself (fitting that the video ends as it does). I forget if Wilson specifically said this was about a politician-type, but I can’t see it any other way, which dovetails perfectly with…

- Man of the People: I’m pretty sure Wilson said this was about a politician’s wife (or that kind of relationship and situation, anyway), which makes it a perfect flip side to Eminent Sleaze: resigned vulnerability (“I can take rejection…I got nowhere to go to”) rather than impenetrable confidence (“two faces and friends in high places”), capable of minimizing the self in the context of a worldview (“I’m just part of the plan”) rather than inhumanly narcissistic (“I’m a bona fide reptile”).

- Personal Shopper: a salesman or carnival barker imploring you to perfect the shell and the outer self by buying to the extreme; the “pain points” I mentioned earlier refer to the inner self.

- Follower: the spirit of the internet tempting you to be your worst self, not through purchase, but through your treatment of others (“it’s ok to hammer and kick now…lash out, well don’t you feel good now?”)

- Count of Unease: a sharp contrast as Wilson retreats to the soft tones that opened the album, and soft language as well, but what is being said? At first, I took this to be all “inner self” material, expressing love and willingness to sacrifice (“if I could die right now for anything, it would be this”) and question one’s self (“did I believe the words I spoke?”), it seemed all vulnerability, loss, and regret – but the line “always outside; always out of my mind” suggests that this person feels a fundamental detachment, which makes me wonder: what if these are the words of a shell-shocked victim of his own behavior, wallowing in the remains of his own life, expressing love not for a person around him, but for the shell he can’t let go of, an outer self that by now may have imploded but remains the personal ideal? Is “if I could die right now for anything it would be this” a final cry of humanity, or a desperate grasp at the material ideal? Wilson doesn’t say all this here, and I know I’m overthinking it, but as the album ends, I feel only contradiction and confusion – kind of how many of us feel when turning the screen off at the end of a day (or rant), I’d imagine.

Lyrically, TFB is incredibly interesting to me, especially for an album that musically fails to reach the level reached by so much of Wilson’s prior work (this comment was intended as an observation and not the backhanded compliment it turned out to be). I will say that for something that seems to be oriented toward the superficial, plastic, and shiny, this album may be one that gets under people’s skin in ways they don’t anticipate (we’re always vulnerable, and we didn’t see “sunglasses” as threatening – guess again!).

to be continued...

 

Part 5:

Back to the music: I later turned to the bonus CD, and surprise, surprise; Steven – that little devil – once again tucked some of his best stuff away on a bonus disc that only a few thousand of us will ever own: Ha Bloody Ha, Wave The White Flag, and Every Kingdom Falls are better than all but maybe the top two on the album proper.

As for the extended remixes: Personal Shopper flew by; King Ghost was great (as I said: obsessed); and Eminent Sleaze felt like it was always meant to be this long.

I Am Cliché – at first, this sounded like just another fast techno thing, but after a handful of listens, man, is it good. More importantly, I am stunned that he didn’t include this on the album; sonically, stylistically, and lyrically it is an absolutely perfect fit for TFB’s sound and concept. It truly amazes me that he left it off.

In Pieces – having listened to this several times, I’ve settled on “hokey ear-splinter” as the best description for this terrible thing. This is just plain bad. It’s only on the bonus disc – it’s okay! – and it’s so bad that I kind of find it funny, so I guess I do derive some entertainment value from it in the end. Still: bad.

The instrumental disc wasn’t quite the revelation that I’d hoped and expected it to be, but it was strong in the spots I already considered to be the strengths of the album: King Ghost (again: obsessed), Man of the People, Personal Shopper, Count of Unease, and to an extent, Follower and Eminent Sleaze. With Self and 12 Things, the instrumental version mainly just sounded like audio wallpaper while I thought, “yep, there’s the chord change; yep, that’s how you structure a totally ordinary song the likes of which other people have written absolutely every day for the last hundred years.” Still, I can’t complain about this type of bonus; I’d like to have this every time out.

About the Blu-Ray: I enjoyed the videos and appreciate the inclusion of the formats I can’t yet access (5.1, Atmos, etc.), as it gives me the warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing I possess these things. Still, a “making of” doc would’ve been good (any video content beyond the 3 videos, really).

So here you have a lot to enjoy, and I am enjoying it – but there is a limit, and here it is: I live for things like the post-break “you were just meant to be temporary” bit in The Watchmaker; the post-break crank-up of Routine, where Ninet lifts off, the second half of Detonation, which positively smokes; the entirety of Raven (the song); the raw, simple beauty permeating virtually all of GFD, or about two or three dozen other moments over the previous four albums, and nothing on TFB – not a single moment – comes close to touching those. Oh well; I guess we wait to see what’s next.

In closing (yay!), I’d like to take issue with/poke fun at a few of Steven’s recently stated opinions:

He likes to say that it’s harder to write a pop song than a prog song. Now, I don’t write songs, but I have to say, you could tell me that it’s more difficult to make a glass paperweight than a fine bookcase, but only one really impresses me, and it isn’t the doodad that sits on a desk.

He talks about how shorter albums are better, which is both wrong and hilarious. It’s wrong because quality depends on the material; any worthwhile work defines itself irrespective of the listener. It’s hilarious because Wilson begins most recent interviews with “I like irritating my existing fanbase by giving something they don’t want,” and yet he feels compelled to adhere to, or at least acknowledge during this album cycle, the “typical attention span of the masses”? Well, which is it? Comport to audience requirements or no? I just think it’s funny; if Steven wants to do a 180-minute country album, he should let rip (he could start that with a banjo and washboard rendition of In Pieces).

In recent interviews he also talks about not wanting things like “muso” solos, “widdly” things reminiscent of prog – but doesn’t all music come down to how it sounds to the listener, and not how it reads on sheet music? I could be referring to the musicians and the things he (this cycle) doesn’t want them to do – or I could be referring to the fact that on all of his albums, and definitely on this one, he devotes total attention to the production – that sh!t shines like a new car, and he wouldn’t let it out any other way (and even if he released something with distortion or lo-fi effects, brother, that’s because he wants it that way). It just feels a bit of a contradiction. (Between this and the short album thing, I think he tends to say “this thing is wrong and here’s why” rather than simply saying “this thing is wrong for this particular project and here’s why.” It is of no importance, but it sticks out to me.

[I didn't mean to write this much, but it feels like a waste to take so many notes and not use them...]


The End!

 

Wow that was a read and honestly I enjoy a thought out passionate opinion a lot. Even if I don’t agree. You make many good points. Thanks for sharing!

For me the true test is whether or not I’ll come back to TFB or not down the road a stretch. There’s an intrinsic passion created by an artist that can speak to you on a deeper level. Steven has accomplished this for me many times. For that I’m grateful and a fanboy. He has my eternal respect.

I think nostalgia works against me and this might be one of those instances, but time will tell. I really appreciate an intense guitar driven album. I don’t like an exercise in how many notes one can play, but I love a guitar with a lot of emotion. I like the soundscapes too. I’ve never been one for anything that has a processed dance feel. I like a ton of stuff on TFB, but I’m not sure I feel as passionate about it as I have other things.

I also agree with your album length assessment. It’s about the material for sure.

 

“I like irritating my existing fanbase by giving something they don’t want...

Really? Oh well... Glad I did a reality check after TTB and its live tour album/video.

 

This was finally released in Canada yesterday and I had mine delivered. I have
not listened yet but that white plastic jewel case is unique to say the least.

 

Really? I got mine from Amazon.ca like 3 weeks ago!
Anyway,I'm glad I didnt buy the fancy/expensive one,because it sit on the shelf now.

 

I can't see dropping Prodigal. The transition from it to .3 is masterful, and is the perfect 1-2 punch to kick off the second half of the record.

Agreed. If Drown with Me had to go on the album, then Wedding Nails is the easy one to swap out.

 

Still loving The Future Bites, revisited it today and unlike maybe some SW fans here I have seen, I personally think this and To the Bone are very strong pieces of work are right up there with the gems of Steven's solo career