4 ½

Steven Wilson's 4 1/2 is a mini-LP (Wilson's words) of music recorded between HAND CANNOT ERASE and THE RAVEN THAT REFUSED TO SING. This is Steven Wilson, so the music is going to be worth our attention. As the official Allmusic (great website by the way) review suggests, "Year of the Plague" is a nonessential track. In my opinion, the album lags slightly in the middle. It falls too easily into repetitive, almost ambient territory, as Wilson sometimes does.

As criticisms go, however, there are far worse ones. My favorite track originates from the time when Porcupine Tree were still a going concern. Apparently I'm swimming against the stram when I say I absolutely love this version of "Don't Hate Me", with Theo Travis' and Ninet Tayeb's contributions. It's worth at least 1 star of the overall rating all by itself. "Happiness III" is also very catchy. I think Wilson's almost incapable of putting out music that doesn't reflect the care & songwriting ability that he always exhibits, so this gets 4 stars from me. At the very least, you just have to hear the two tracks mentioned.