STEVEN WILSON

Without completely abandoning the electronic influences of his recent albums, "The Overview" marks Steven Wilson's return to what he does best: outstanding progressive rock!

Here, we find only two unique and lengthy tracks, split into more standard-length songs on disc 2. While these may not represent the instrumental excellence of "The Raven That Refused to Sing" or "Hand. Cannot. Erase." (it's worth noting that the musician himself handles most of the instruments), they certainly bring us back to the most inspired Wilson from a compositional perspective.

Within this work, the most remarkable elements are the more acoustic and less experimental passages, present in both tracks, which might even remind us of the best moments of Porcupine Tree or albums where the British artist served as producer, such as "Damnation" by Opeth.

I hope this return to the right path continues over time and that Steven Wilson keeps delivering music of this quality, whether under his name or that of Porcupine Tree.

A true surprise, indeed!

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

'4½' is a 2016 EP/mini-album by Steven Wilson, a shorter but brilliant release that bridges the gap and connects his 2015 and 2017 studio albums, while remaining much more sonically pertinent to 'Hand. Cannot. Erase.' and its progressive pop experiments. Five of the six songs appearing on this EP are all-new recordings from recent sessions, refined and produced by Wilson himself, while the closing piece is a re-recoding of 'Don't Hate Me', a song appearing on Porcupine Tree's 'Stupid Dream' album, here featuring the majestic vocals of Ninet Tayeb, an important part of Wilson's progressive pop era. Furthermore, half of this EP is instrumental, which allows for an eclectic mixture of influences, moods, and tones, with some tracks bordering on fusion and improvisation, while others exude a psychedelic sensibility that was perhaps missing from 'H. C. E.' or 'To the Bone'. Entries like the pop-rock 10-minute-long opener 'My Book of Regrets' solidify Wilson as a master songwriter able to craft gorgeous pieces from scratch, while instrumentals like 'Year of the Plague' and 'Vermillioncore' definitely depict the more progressive and experimental side. 'Happiness III' and the closing track are the more emotive numbers on here, and the entire '4½' mini-album is an excellent intermediate work that concludes one great albums and lets another one take off on a high note. (And yes, it is just a minute shorter than 'Close to the Edge', which allows us to understand how much the notions of LP and EP have diverted through the decades)

When I watched Star Wars: Episode VIII for the first time in the cinema, there was silence. Nobody said anything, nobody clapped. I walked out the cinema unsure whether I actually liked what I had just experienced. I felt as though I should love what I just saw, deep down I did not. It was strange and unsettling. I had a similar feeling when I attended one of the preview events for The Overview in Mexico City. When the screening ended, the audience applauded. I hesitated but, in the end, I decided not to join in. Over time I developed the running joke that The Last Jedi is the worst movie in history. That said, the evolution of The Overview in my mind has gone in the opposite direction, I believe it is a very good record. It is neither a failed effort like To The bone, nor a scattered pastiche like The Harmony Codex. However, it is also not the progressive Wilson of The Raven, not even of Hand.Cannot.Erase. Musically, both tracks on The Overview, mainly the second one, feel like a continuation of his more recent work. Generally, I consider the first one slightly better, as it flirts with a sound reminiscent of Porcupine Tree's latest album. Then, there is the much-discussed format: two long tracks. The suites feel a bit disjointed, particularly on early listens, and I believe it is because they do not end the typical epic grand finale, but instead seem to fade into the void, drifting into long calm passages that abruptly despair. Still, I think the album's biggest limitation, and what keeps it from reaching the heights of Wilson's first four solo albums is the absence of band. Let me explain. This is very much a solo record. You can feel Wilson made it alone and brought it to life alone, in his room. What made The Raven and Hand.Cannot.Erase so powerful was that they sounded like a band, a truly magnificent group of musicians playing together. The Overview sounds like Steven Wilson by himself, for better or worse. It feels pieced together rather than performed and the spark that comes from collaboration, from musicians living and working together is missing. To sum up, The Overview offers a certain balance between progressive music, at least in its structure and modern Wilson sound. It is easy to listen to, surprisingly brief, which invites repeat plays. On the downside, it carries and sense of loneliness and recycles familiar musical language. It is an improvement over his recent works , but misses the energy, depth, emotional impact and even the sinister touches of Wilson most acclaimed records.

Steven Wilson's Space Rock Odyssey.

1. Objects Outlive Us (23:19) (25/25) I. No Monkeys Paw. Beautiful way to open the track, really pretty, it's like Floyd mixed with a bit of Harmony Codex and Future Bites. Gentle piece, nice intro.

II. The Buddha of the Modern Age. Some of my favourite vocal work Steven Wilson has ever put to record, that includes everything he did in Porcupine Tree. Gregorian chant-esque, mixing Pink Floyd and the intro of Revealing Science of God by Yes.

III. Objects: Meanwhile. Pure Floydian-Steven Wilson. The guitar playing, the keyboard sounds (maybe lacking in organs and rhodes but regardless), the atmosphere, even the Harmonies (which PF could never replicate). The verse is catchy, the chorus mixed Hand. Cannot. Erase. qualities and Floyd-esque mood, a little bit of complexity, and cool yet subtle use of Saxophone.

Also, Andy Partridge (XTC) having lyrical credits here is really cool.

IV. The Cicerones Nice little guitar part, feels like something off Deadwing or even Hand. Cannot. Erase again. Mellotrons to give that old prog feel to go directly into...

V. Ark. A vocal focused bit, almost polyrhythmic. Love the lyrical flow, love how Steven executes this part. Gorgeous, production holds up really well too. A bit of heaviness, a bit of beautiful harmonies... what's not to love?

VI. Cosmic Sons of Toil. A little space rock / jazz fusion focused prog in this bit. Steven has a way of phrasing guitar parts, sorta Floyd-esque but... it's also like Fripp-esque too. You get this Floydian Jazz bit with the Fripp like weirdness. Great part, love the angular nature, love the keyboards here.

VII. No Ghost on the Moor. Reprising 'No Monkeys Paw' Lyrics and 90% musically, just add some slow drums. Really nice way to tie the epic together. Once again, strong ties to HCE, TFB and THC.

VIII. Heat Death of the Universe Reprises the opening with even more emphasis on the Floydian (DSOTM or The Wall-esque) Space Rock elements and production. Beautiful way to close off this epic. Very Floydian, really spacey, awesome guitar solo. This ends so ominously too, spacey string section, creepy, fitting for the mood of the album. If you like Pink Floyd, this is the closest you will get in the 21st Century. Period.

2. The Overview (18:48) (19.5/20) I. Perspective. Trippy, Electronic Rock, a little bit of the Dark Side of the Moon and Sky Moves Sideways elements. Really cool, but this is the only part of the album I find overstays it's welcome. Creative though! Reminds of stuff he also did on his previous solo album 'The Harmony Codex', a little more Tangerine Dream influence. As much as it's not my favourite moment on the album, how much does this differ from the opening of Time on DSOTM? Plus, it's part of the concept and has cool keys....

II. A Beautiful Infinity I. Beatles-esque with the Classic Wilson Floydian touch. Reminds me a little bit of Porcupine Tree's 'Stupid Dream', cool space-oriented lyrics, Floydian Guitar slides (obviously reminiscent to David Gilmore), strong songwriting.

III. Borrowed Atoms. The closest thing you'll get to Pink Floyd harmonies in the 21st century. Period. It's 'The Great Gig in the Sky' musically and 'Goodbye Blue Sky' vocally in the 21st Century. Very pretty.

IV. A Beautiful Infinity II. We return to the Beatles-esque feel of A Beautiful Infinity, really beautiful like I said. Strong hints of the Psychedelia that inspired SW so much. Definitely something worth reprising. Slightly rough transition, but you may end up getting used to it (it's just a tad abrupt).

V. Infinity Meassured in Moments. Mixing the Tangerine Dream qualities, spoken word, into a more prog drumgroove. It's also weird how I can compare this to Dukes Travels in ways. We get some more great vocal work, followed by a truly electric Adam Holzman solo. The sequencers, the guitars, the sounds and fx, the drums, everything. Absolutely incredible. One of my favourite moments Steven has written in his career.

VI. Permanence. Richard Wright-esque chords, Saxophone, the mood, the way the keys sound... I love every moment. A little bit of Floyd, Jean-Luc Ponty, and just mood music. Some of the most serenely gorgeous 3 minutes ever put on a Steven Wilson record.

Total: (44.5/45) = 98.89% Grade : A+ Favourite Track: Objects Outlive Us Favourite Section: Infinity Meassured in Moments.

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So! The Overview... This is the Pink Floyd record that Pink Floyd never made. This is Animals meets Wish You Were Here, mixed with a little Tangerine Dream, Yes, Crimson, and some Jazz elements to keep you entertained.

Listen, if you are going into this thinking this is gonna be "The Raven That Refused to Sing" or "Grace for Drowning" or even "Hand. Cannot. Erase" you'll be disappointed. This is Steven's attempt at a Space Rock album and he made it clear that's what this album will be. 'Objects Outlive Us' is taking more from Floyd directly, more comparable to something like "The Sky Moves Sideways", a little bit of the classic Yes/Crimson influenced prog in there too. While the Title Track took from Psychedelic Rock like The Beatles, the 70s Floyd sound, and emphasis on the Harmony Codex "Tangerine Dream" qualities as well.

This is both an attempt to make a modern Floyd record, and recapturing a ton of Steven Wilson's career all on one disc. At a concise 41:44, this album doesn't waste your time... it just delivers exactly what's intended. My only real critiques are that a small few of moments feel cut and pasted together, like there wasn't enough time to write a proper transition (most notably A Beautiful Infinity II into Infinity Meassured in Moments), and how long 'Perspective' drones for.

Absolutely astounding record. The closest I've come to giving an album a 10/10 review so far.

PA Rating: 5 stars - Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.

Steven Wilson has described his new album, The Overview, as a return to longer-form writing. I'm not sure "return" is necessarily applicable here. Even To the Bone and The Future Bites had one song apiece that pushed 10 minutes. Though I suppose if he's talking more specifically about songs long enough to cover one whole side of an LP, it has been a while. The last one of such length was "Raider II" off Grace for Drowning in 2011. And this is the first album to feature two such massive songs since The Sky Moves Sideways (though disc one of The Incident is billed as one hour-long song cycle).

This is also the first Steven Wilson solo album in a while I've gone into with good hopes. He has explicitly cited Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd as influences he channeled here, as well as stating that the concept of The Overview is well-suited to progressive rock. (The concept behind this album is "the overview effect," where astronauts viewing the Earth from above often report overwhelming emotion and a strong connection with all of humanity.)

The first half of the album is the 23-minute, eight-part "Objects Outlive Us", which was co-written by Andy Partridge of XTC. Opening with some wispy, echoing falsetto vocals, things coalesce slowly, and the second part has a touch more urgency. Piano underpins a steady marching rhythm, and multilayered vocals add to the building tension. It grows louder and more oppressive before suddenly cutting out, seemingly evoking the growing weight of G-forces before arriving in a zero-gravity setting.

Pink Floyd is indeed a very obvious influence in this song, but it's all run through the filter of Wilson's songwriting style. Wilson has always drawn heavily from Floyd, and part three gives me strong echoes of Porcupine Tree circa the turn of the millennium. This phase then shifts into a heavier passage, and I really like the guitar tones here. The riffs are irregular and exciting.

Near the midpoint of "Objects Outlive Us", things quiet down, and piano and acoustic guitar again take the lead. As more textures enter, it lends the song a trancelike, hypnotic quality. Wilson again pulls off a powerful buildup before pulling back and letting blooping synth patterns push things along. There's a wiry, bluesy guitar solo that contrasts against the space-age retro-futurism of the backing in a really interesting way.

Heading into the final leg of this opus, Wilson revisits the subdued themes of this song's opening, underscoring the thesis laid out in this song's title: the persistence of things. A stretched-out guitar solo occupies most of this song's conclusion, gradually fading into an anxious swirl of effects.

The 18-minute, six-part title track comes next. Opening on radio static, it quickly shifts to bouncy electronica with outer-space words being narrated over top. Here are those Tangerine Dream influences he mentioned! This passage goes on for a bit longer than it needs to, but it's not too terribly dragged-out. The shifting textures beneath the narration do give this section some dynamism, and it does a good job at setting the tone. 

Part two starts as an acoustic song with a simple rhythm, and the Pink Floyd influences are again obvious, especially in the guitar flourishes. His vocal melodies are strong and catchy, and this is a good synthesis of his more pop-oriented writing with some of his prog influences. There is some nice twang here and there in the instrumental backing that I'm not sure I've ever heard from Wilson before. The mood is overall mellower and dreamier than on the prior epic. This piece takes its time a bit more, and that's a nice contrast between the two sides.

The opening narration reemerges, but this time the backing is more a blend of rock and electronic influences, rather than diverging into one or the other. After one last reprise of the preceding section's chorus, the song pushes into an ascendant, interstellar guitar solo.

There's an unexpected hard pivot to a rather sunny, bouncy section led by biting bass and punctuated by handclaps. Despite how different it is from the preceding passage, it fits in perfectly, and it serves as the backing for an exhilarating synthesizer solo. Delicate guitar and ukulele arpeggios evoke twinkling stars as things fade out.

"The Overview"'s final passage emerges from this void with gently wobbling electric piano and distant saxophone, calling to mind the emptiness of space. This resolution feels somewhat anticlimactic. Had, perhaps, this been shorter and flowed more immediately from the preceding passage, it may have worked better. But as it is, it simply lingers too long for my liking. That said, it's a fairly minor overall quibble.

It's nice to have Steven Wilson making music I like again. Where The Harmony Codex saw him bridging his electronic and rock influences, The Overview is where he has jumped fully back into prog. Who knows how long he'll stay there, but I'm enjoying it while I can. The two huge tracks here are both smart and striking, with distinct personalities. I've got minor gripes with each, but on the whole, this is quite the strong release.

Review originally published here: theeliteextremophile.com/2025/03/17/album-review-steven-wilson-the-overview/

Steven WILSON, one of the prog benchmarks; a patchwork, conceptual album bringing together two musical overlays to escape this dark world through his unique musical universe. A title about the effect of seeing Earth from above.

"Objects Outlive Us: No Monkey's Paw" with a cappella falsetto vocals addressing the extraterrestrial, coming from limbo, captivating latency worthy of POPOL VUH, a cosmic air to put us in the space mood, with ENO and REICH in the background. "The Buddha of the Modern Age" with lyrics by Andy of XTC, a pop gem about the problem of screens. "Objects: Meanwhile" central theme: life and its deceptions, imploding black holes. A romantic-dramatic mid-tempo ballad with a strong bass variation, a feel of "The Sky Moves Sideways" and the psychedelic-prog-post-rock madness that rises like an endless wave with keyboards favoring memories on ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA. A nervous, invasive finale reminiscent of "The Harmony Codex". "The Cicerones/Ark" acoustic arpeggio with its organ jelly, musical time seeming to stop on this metronomic vocal mantra that swells, swells like in the good old days of HAWKWIND. The heavy prog sound of the future with hints of his previous works. "Cosmic Sons of Toil" introduces a synth from TANGERINE DREAM, an energetic, tormented guitar taking the place of the keyboard. Unstructured, hypnagogic sound, modern notes and the outline of the heavy metal finale. "No Ghost on the Moor/Heat Death of the Universe" has the soaring atmosphere of the 95s, "The Sky" again features Craig's signature drums on the phrasing vocals, Randy's guitar connecting with the previous track. A surprising guitar solo with a final sound reminiscent of a ship's noise.

"The Overview: Perspective" builds on the foundations of the last track, "The Harmony Codex," with Rotem's voice rattling off sequences of numbers, like the TALKING HEADS, with a rudimentary TANGERINE DREAM-esque soaring synth, an amplified atmospheric ambiance. A metronomic, repetitive, tinkering space lacking soul. "A Beautiful Infinity/Borrowed Atoms" has the slow melody of PINK FLOYD, like "Wish You Were Here," a languid, reverberating air reminiscent of disco in the distance, and closer "Stupid Dream," even "The Future Bites." Randy brings his touch with a tortured solo that restores order; Beatlesian overtones, piano arpeggios and distant beats, helicopter blades. The chorus's languid ending is predictable, lacking spark. "A Beautiful Infinity II/Infinity Measured in Moments" returns to the stratosphere with robotic female phrasing and BOWIE-esque funky rock keyboard drops. The atmospheric choir fills the ears, flooding with its fluid melody of OLFIELD, electro, and then another tortured guitar solo flirting with the keyboard. Crystalline arpeggios, musical water drops, and the muffled sound launch "Permanence" into a codice-like harmonic finale, sax in the distance, as in "Le grand Bleu." Adam's languid jazzy air invites us to float in space and see from above, a clear nod to the melodies of VANGELIS. Steve Wilson has projected his album with Miles Skarin-esque views, for an immersive audio on the phenomenon of the visual sensation of space. It is a return to progressive and expansive music, an opus for traveling in endless prog space. An excellent album for those who do not know his work, very good for those who like prog and good for those who know the work well, delivering here a tactical best of his discography. (3.5). (4.5 in atmospherics for musical pleasure, WILSON is avant-garde anyway.) Originally on Progcensor.

Steven Wilson enters 2025 with a dazzling new studio album aiming to be a contemporary musical interpretation of the so-called "overview effect" experienced by astronauts seeing the Earth from space, an experience described as deeply moving and emotional, which is often the case with Wilson's musical ventures. This is the British musician's eighth solo album and is a very welcome and warmly-received return to a more psychedelic-progressive style of writing, at times even reminiscent of his earliest experiments with Porcupine Tree (thinking of 'The Sky Moves Sideways' or 'Metanoia'), and is ideally in a format he has never tackled before as the album is composed of just two lengthy pieces of music, both of which are tied to the overarching concept of the aforementioned "overview effect". Alongside Wilson one shall find the usual cast of collaborators in the likes of Adam Holzman, Craig Blundell and Randy McStine, with Theo Travis making a brief appearance, together with Willow Beggs, Niko Tsonev and Rotem Wilson.

The first part of 'The Overview' album is the 23-minute piece titled 'Objects Outlive Us', a cathartic, complex and incredibly diverse movement that is made up of eight different bits, although the entire piece (and the whole album, in fact) works as a cohesive whole and should be seen as such. Starting off with a choral, enchanting intro, the song gradually moves to a more traditional Wilson-esque progression, with loads of atmospheric keys, haunting acoustic guitars and refined melodies, topped by the picturesque lyrics of Andy Partridge. A more avant-garde instrumental sections awaits the listener later on, similar to some of the material on 'The Harmony Codex', then drifting away into space on the wings of a spacious guitar solo, one of the best on a Steven Wilson recording, authored by McStine. The title track comes second here and is an 18-minute-long movement structured in six parts - this is a much wider, more atmospheric and fluid piece of music, with some spoken word from Wilson's wife and a prevalent use of various effects, synths, and keyboards. An interesting counterbalance to the first part of the album, together with which it forms a very endearing, calming and fascinatingly enticing musical experience, elevated perhaps by the fact that this album is much more pertinent to the progressive roots of the artist yet intelligently claiming enough of his more recent experiments with electronica.

Not too long ago, I reviewed Steven Wilson's then latest release, "The Harmony Codex". In that review I mentioned that this release was forthcoming, and here it is. "The Overview" was released on March 14, 2025, thus making it one week old as I type this (a little older by the time this gets posted). Anything Mr. Wilson releases has a tendency to get a lot of notice right away in the prog-fan community, and this is no exception. This album seems to be a "love it or hate it" release. We shall see what I think shortly. The album is split between 2 "sidelongs", with the first being 23:19 and the second being 18:21. In the version I have from Apple Music, the tracks are repeated with the different sections in separate tracks. In a newly published interview in Guitar Player Magazine, Wilson describes the album thusly:

[Interviewer] It's billed as two pieces, but the album really feels like a singular experience.

[Wilson] It's two different sides of the same coin. The first side of the album is really about the human side of it, and the second side is more about the science. And even then, it's not as simple as that, because there's little bit of each in both. I think that's the way I kind of rationalize these two separate pieces of music to be. The second half is more about the science and the sheer magnitude of space, and the first is about the human race and its relationship to it.

The musician line-up is:

- Steven Wilson / vocals, guitars, keyboards, sampler, bass, percussion, programming

With: - Adam Holzman / keyboards - Randy McStine / guitars - Craig Blundell / drums

So, without further ado, here are my first impressions as I give it a "cold listen."

Track 1 - Objects Outlive Us

The "movements" are as follows:

- No Monkey's Paw - The Buddha of the Modern Age - Objects: Meanwhile - The Cicerones - Ark - Cosmic Sons of Toil - No Ghost on the Moor - Heat Death of the Universe

The piece begins with Wilson singing a high note with minimal synth accompaniment. He sings in harmony starting around the 30 second point. Bass and more keys join in just before the one-minute point. The music is unfolding slowly, with lots of space between phrases. A piano part begins to establish some rhythm before the 2-minute point, and then Blundell taps a ride cymbal on the beat. Over the next minute, the song builds in intensity. I am getting Pink Floyd-" Interstellar Overdrive" vibes between the 3-minute mark and 4:15; very cool. I like the musical textures that follow. We are in 6-8 after 5 minutes. I like the instrumental textures in the section after 6 minutes. I am listening on fairly decent speakers now but betting it would sound spectacular in headphones. At around 7:15 there is a possible David Bowie reference when he sings "While he wondered, 'Is there life on Mars?'" I love the fuzz bass at around the 8-minute mark. Then Blundell joins with an AWESOME drum groove. This becomes a prog- tastic instrumental break! I am really enjoying this track! Another vocal section begins following that at a softer dynamic level. Then at 10:15 the level increases for an ascending melody. Excellent use of dynamic levels, Mr. Wilson (yep, I can't hide my music teacher thought process!). A more mellow section follows this with some odd meter shifts. I am picking up a return of a musical theme from earlier, but with variations from 11:30 or so. Great dynamic changes again at 13:30. The music gets "heavier" around 14 minutes. Excellent piano around 14:25. More prog coolness ensues at around 14:45. Not sure if the following guitar solo is Wilson or McStine, but it's wonderful! The piano motif returns, joined by the entire band. Great bass at 16:20, followed by a cool guitar riff. Great playing leading up to a pause in activity at 17 minutes. After that the music gets a "floating-through-space" vibe. Wilson sings some nice falsetto lines here. By 19 minutes in, a subtle rhythm has returned. A quiet guitar solo joins in following that. I have not been focused on the different sections here, preferring to listen as a whole. Wonderful guitar playing as we approach the 22-minute point. A disturbing tone brings the piece to a resolution. I absolutely LOVED that! So far, I know which side of the "Love it or hate it" debate I fall on!

Track 2- The Overview

A bit of "static" starts the second track. A rhythmic sequenced synth part follows, joined by some electronic percussion sounds. A spoken word part joins in describing the sizes of various identified stars and nebulas. So far this one has more of an "electronic music" vibe. He eventually begins mentioning galaxies as we proceed. The sounds fade out at around 4:15. More peaceful, floaty type sounds follow that. At 4:44 the band kicks in with a moderate tempo 4-4 beat. Wilson begins singing at around 5:15. This has a strummed acoustic with the keys and rhythm section, along with clean electric flourishes. He returns to falsetto at around 6:25 for a couple of lines. A guitar solo follows. This one is kinda mellow so far, but I like it. The rhythm section and guitars drop out around 7:45 and piano and sound effects accompany the vocals. A very short, but impressive a cappella harmony section leads the band back in in a bigger way than they had been previously at around 8:45. If the Beatles had continued into the modern day, it might sound like this. Superb harmony vocals, as we have come to expect from Wilson in Porcupine Tree and other projects hit at around 9:20. At 9:45 Holzman gives us a very Rick Wright (the late-great keyboardist from Pink Floyd) keyboard-tone feature, but only for about 15 seconds. At 10:00 the music drops back out for spacy sounds. By 11 minutes, the band has a cool rhythm going with more stats about the size of objects in space being described. The harmony vocals recapitulate some of the themes from track 1. Fantastic guitar sounds take over at around 12:15. At 13:00, we have handclap sounds with another cool rhythm happening. I like it! The Wright style keyboards get a longer feature after that. Nice sounds at 14 minutes! This is GREAT PROG! I don't know what the ones who didn't like this were listening to, because it couldn't have been this! The music fades and more stats are read. By 15 minutes a mellow keyboard takes over. It is spacy here as well, but the album is ABOUT SPACE! (lol) These sounds seem to be taking us to the close of the track for the last minute and a half. GREAT TRACK!!

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

So, first I will start with an admission. I was dreading this one a bit, after seeing so many negative takes on this album, and the disappointment I felt over "The Harmony Codex" in my review in January. However, to quote my earlier self: "Maybe 'The Overview,' will be more what I am looking for. The early info shows that he recorded it with only Randy McStine (Guitars), Adam Holzman (Keys) and Craig Blundell (Drums) along with him, so it seems more like a rock band effort." And indeed, it was! Sure, there were a few segments here and there that were a bit slow moving, but it fits in with the concept of the album. This album belongs alongside Wilson's best solo-efforts as well as the best Porcupine Tree albums. The harmonies in the middle of the title track reminded me of PT classics like "Waiting," "Lips of Ashes," and "Lazarus." While it maybe isn't quite as good as "The Raven That Refused to Sing," (which I gave 5 stars) it's very close. I gave "The Harmony Codex" 3.75 out of 5, as it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. This one gets 4.75 out of 5 stars! It's great prog, and Wilson and crew really delivered.

Clicked 5 stars, but really 4.75...4 is too low.

The concept of the album is about our perspective looking at the earth from space and how it can create a sense of joy in some people and a feeling of emptiness in others. The album has 2 long songs; the first one is related to humanity and the second to science. This explains why we are in front of 2 different atmospheres on those songs. 

 

The first song starts at a low pace with vocals and piano, and it takes a while before we can hear the guitars. Some more upbeat music starts with the bass and some cool synth effects. Then there is a long silence at the 11:00 mark. The guitar takes more space with a solo. I enjoy the buildup in this song that ends peacefully. The second track is spacey at the beginning in an Ozric Tentacles style with electronic effects and the narration of Steve's wife. If you enjoy ambient music, you will enjoy this; if not, then the second half will please you more when the drums kick in and the guitar has more space. It's here that we can hear some nice keyboard solos. The beginning of this second song reminds me also of Porcupine Tree's "The Sky Moves Sideways" and some bits of "Dark Side of the Moon." 

 

So, we have here a proggy album, but some may be disappointed if you expect a more rock-oriented album. It's more on the line of "Harmony Codex" while maintaining some of the sound of earlier albums. But in the end, it must be enjoyed for its cinematic feel with some new things and some old things from Steven. While I am not excited by the story, the music has enough quality to satisfy me. I prefer the first song because I prefer to be more on the earth than in space...