THE FUTURE BITES

Now this is a stinker. Back when "The Future Bites" was announced, Steven Wilson told the press how experimental this record would have been. Paradoxically this is one of his most derivative albums ever: "Man of the People" sounds like a rewritten version of "Welcome to the machine" by Pink Floyd, "Eminent Sleaze" sounds like a bad mix of "Have a Cigar", a Prince song and some Bowie stuff from his Berlin days. Again, "12 things that I forgot" sounds like a Coldplay song that could have been released in 2005, not exactly experimental eh? The first half of "Follower" sounds like Kasabian and then it becomes something that The Who could have been recording for their 1978 album "Who Are You". Not very innovative neither the themes that are the core of this concept album: how bad consumerism is, how bad capitalism is, how the media control our collective mind and so on. (All themes dealt with since the 70's by tons of releases and other artists). Anyway the real trouble to put it simply, is that "The Future Bites" sounds dull, uninspired. No great melodies, no interesting chords progressions. It is unrelevant how interesting and smart your concept album is, if your songs lack quality. Matter of fact this release counts on quantity, not quality: it's like Wilson decided to mix 75 different influences to just make one song at the time and ending up with little results. Just like meshing Oranges, Apples, Bananas, Rice, Spices, Milk, Cheese, Tomatoes and God knows what to end up with an indigestible meatloaf that tastes terrible. "The Future Bites" is chaotic, for how inconsistent and little homogeneous is; poorly written, pretentious in its intents and approximate. A real come down from his previous work "To the Bone" which may not have been his best album, but had quality and interesting ideas.