THE OVERVIEW

As one of the biggest names in modern Prog, it's always interesting to hear what Steven Wilson is up to, and this album had additional expectations as it was hyped as Steven's 'return to prog' after multiple albums experimenting with different musical forms, with mixed results. On this album, Steven tackles the concept of The Overview, which has to do with a state of awe and transcendence reported by astronauts while viewing Earth from Space. And if Steven was attempting a musical depiction of that experience, I don't think he succeeded. But for me, Steven Wilson has always been hit and miss, as he has produced some brilliant music, but also a lot of just OK stuff over the years. On this album Steven serves up a mixture of sounds and themes that span through his history, from the more atmospheric, spacey early work of Porcupine Tree through to the more experimental pop of recent years. As usual, the production and sound is impeccable, but for me at least, the results are similar to past work in that it is extremely up and down, equal parts good and disappointing. There are only 2 album side-long tracks here, but yet they don't really hold together as cohesive pieces, more as a collection of shorter pieces just placed together, some of which work and some that don't. It seems to be put together from various pieces and ideas he had lying around. The best parts are really good, with some great melodies, proggy elements, and pop-rock arrangements, whereas the weaker parts are somewhat dull or not very interesting. Overall, maybe about half of each full track was enjoyable for me, about 15-20 minutes out of the 41 min length. I know many consider Mr. Wilson to be a musical genius, and I'm glad that Steven is able to do whatever kind of music he wants to do, but once again, these musings strike me as being just pretty good, and a bit underwhelming. Rating: 3.0

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