THE FUTURE BITES

I often find myself extremely conflicted when I review albums that are clearly not prog for this website. The rules require that the maximum score I could give for a non prog album would be 3. And I cannot bring myself to do that for say a Fire of Unknown Origin or even Rainbow's RIsing.

But not this time! ;)

Wilson talked a big talk at the time of the release of The Future Bites. He took aim at those listeners who prefer to listen to second rate prog but would hate your guts if you made first rate pop. Fair enough and I understand and agree with the sentiment. The trouble is when as an artist you put yourself out there with a statement like that to back your clearly not-prog album, you are begging for the question to be asked as to whether YOU have made a first rate pop album.

I wish I could say the answer is yes.

It isn't, not in my opinion.

It's a first rate PRODUCTION. Wilson's production continues to be top notch, one of the best in the business. I miss the days when pop was still produced like this as lately it is oversaturated with loudness and compression. Wilson's production is luxuriant and the songs sound easy on the ears without lacking punch.

The trouble is this isn't future bites anything. The musical composition itself is very by the numbers. There is hardly anything to surprise you if you have been casually familiar with the goings on in pop. I would even go so far to say that a lot of it is quite dated, evoking the pop that was made maybe ten years ago or older.

One song in particular is super dated but in a nice way. 12 Things I Forgot instantly brings the 90s to mind with a sweet melody that could have found its way into Cathy Dennis' Am I The Kinda Girl album. Which by the way is not an insult if you've heard that album at all. The melody, the arrangements evoke greener Britpop pastures gone by that perhaps Mr Wilson enjoyed when he was younger, so much younger than today. Indeed, the harmonizing on the chorus evokes Beatles. There is also a whiff of the song Gary Barlow wrote for Agnetha Faltskog - I Should Have Followed You Home.

There is little redemption elsewhere as Wilson frequently hides his own vocals behind computerised effects. So futuristic it sometimes brings to mind the beginnings of techno.

Wilson pronounced the guitar dead in the interviews accompanying this album. VS Naipaul/Sally Wertheim-like pronouncements declaring the death of the novel/tennis are best avoided but either Wilson does not think so or is consciously trolling us listeners to bait us into listening to the album. After all, I too may not have given this album a few spins had I not been piqued to find out just what was this new album about.

Anyhow, I wonder whether Wilson has listened to the work of Everything Everything, whether he realises that songs like Night of The Long Knives are constructed mostly out of guitars. I mean, I am a hundred percent certain Wilson can forget more about music than what I know about it but even so, such dubious pronouncements do force me to question his wisdom.

Everything Everything is polarizing and quirky but they certainly put out their work boldly and unabashedly and grab you by the collar. That is not something one has been able to say about Wilson in recent years and this album is no exception. His talk seems to be usually followed by a well produced but musically modest affair. What is striking, if anything, is how conservative Wilson's tastes are. I don't mean this in an ideological sense. I mean that he is playing it pretty safe. Even when he ventures far from the comfort zone of a prog rocker, he curates the sounds so carefully it's difficult for this album to offend you.

It does bore me a little though, if I am being perfectly honest. I give it three stars only for the sheer meticulous effort that has clearly gone into putting it together. I appreciate that there are still musicians like Wilson who want to give you a product with high technical values. It is a quality that has increasingly been given the short shrift in the name of everything-goes subjectivity. I respect the polish of this album. But there is only so much you can polish a, uh, semi- turd at the end of the day. Not even close to an excellent addition to any pop music collection, guys; for now, you should be just fine with your Beatles, ABBA, Michael Jackson and Prince albums. Perhaps the future is going to bite but Wilson isn't about to just yet.