GRACE FOR DROWNING

I'll let you have this, friends, it's not the busiest music around, and while listening to the opening ballad "Grace For Drowning", it seems to hold true, despite some beautiful playing by my boy, Jordan Rudess. But it doesn't take long before "Sectarian" kicks in, an instrumental ode to Morse-era Spock? Plenty of action here, but again, it really does seem a bit too lively to be conceived by Wilson. Then again, his solo repertoire differs vastly from his Porcupine Tree work, like (or believe) it or not.

I'll also concede the fact that it is a bit more depressing mood wise. "Hand. Cannot. Erase." is probably the happiest album Steven Wilson is ever going to release. But that's not entirely bad. Songs like "Deform To Form A Star" sound very PT, and thus, might be very boring, Wilson always keeps stuff happening. Overlapping harmonies from his vocals, the periodic guitar solo, Rudess' piano playing and the mildly interesting drumming from Nic France, and the addition of instruments like the sax and clarinet just add so much color and depth you never got from old Porcupine Tree albums.

And that I think is the brilliance of Wilson's solo work. It's still very much reminiscent of Porcupine Tree, but it just sounds more interesting. "No Part Of Me" could be constituted as another typical Wilson ballad, but with the little twinkling bell tone pattern that repeats in the intro, the electronic drums adding tension and drama and the excellent string section (not samples, so you know he's serious here). But then, just when he has you fooled, Wilson throws in some rhythmic claps ,and that's when you know it's going down for real (to quote some guy, think his name is Flo Rida?) The guitars pick up and the actual drums enter close the second half of the song in style behind a sick sax solo by Theo Travis.

But Wilson really does know how to create beautiful songs. "Postcard" is probably right at the top there, with "Raider Prelude" being another interlude filled with beautiful choir vocals and "Remainder The Black Dog" channeling Pink Floyd's down-tempo jams and jazzy, bluesy vibes, before diving into some distorted power chords and rocking out to some sick clarinet and sax solos, one of my favorites of the album.

This album really marks the culmination of Wilson's sound, to me, as "Insurgentes" sounded almost too like Porcupine Tree. There are some catchy songs there, more than any other Wilson solo album, but it also didn't feel like an original style. This album does.

The second disc isn't as good as the first, in my opinion. The acoustic main intro "Belle De Jour" is just sort of there, not really much substance or melody to carry my attention, and "Index" and "Track One" are more haunting atmospheric soundscapes than actual songs. "Raider II" is the jewel of the oyster, here. Soft soft, loud stuff, haunting melodies, technical prowess, this song has it all (And frankly makes me wonder why they couldn't have just made this a one disc album with this being the closer? It would've worked) "Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye", while it's another typical, but beautiful Wilson ballad, I still feel like most of them are just B-sides to accompany "Raider II".

This album has its gems and misses, but it's the beginning of Wilson's own sound and style. Much more diverse than "Insurgentes", but not as complete as "Hand", in my opinion. Most of the songs on the second disc I think are just filler to accompany "Raider II", apart from perhaps "Like Dust". That said, it's still got some tunes, good for any Tree or Wilson fan.

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