THE RAVEN THAT REFUSED TO SING (AND OTHER STORIES)

Steven Wilson has finally made a sensible move: he brought in Alan Parsons to produce, his twin soul! You see, Parsons is indeed like Wilson: a good engineer with an ear for production techniques whose stabs at prog music are based solely on imitation of the peers closest to his heart and which all sound more like adult contemporary rather than something as daring as it is sold.

Jokes aside, why does this album exist at all? Wasn't Grace For Drowning enough? I cannot a thing here that is different from it and it all sounds just as pedestrian. And where does it go after "Luminol"? You mean it isn't all one long and boring song like that "Incident" one? Oh hell, at least the cover is nice, if only the contents where as good as it, but then, this is a Steven Wilson album, which means more big names included in it (Parsons) and more promises being made ("It's a collection of ghost stories that evoke writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens."), all of which amount to nothing at all. By the way, I got way more provoked by Ween's "Spinal Meningitis" or Tool's "Faaip de Oiad" than Wilson's new collection of "ghost stories", all of which are just as infantile as that dreadful "Raider II" from the previous "effort" as much as they are as easy-listening.

Like a reviewer above, I too will resign to try to enjoy even aspects of his work, Steven Wilson's music, attitude and overconfidence bore me and the idea that this guy is keeping prog rock alive disgusts me, pure and simple. Now, excuse me while I grab a Fall CD, I finally understood why Mark E. Smith hates these whiners so much!