HAND. CANNOT. ERASE.

"The Dark Side Of The Moon" level album. To date, the pinnacle of Steven Wilson's tremendous creative journey. Unfortunately, the last album leaves much to be desired, and the freshest opuses are hardly worthy of any attention at all. Heavy, airy, powerful, energetic, dirty, crystal-clear, rough, melodic, beautiful, scary, splendid, ugly. Probably, any epithets can be balanced in it, despite the fact that this is a dense conceptual canvas. Shake, this is the pinnacle beyond which neither Steve nor neo-progressive in general will ever rise. In terms of scope and beauty, it simply has no competitors. The recording dates back to 2015, and here we are talking about a woman found dead in her own apartment, but not just dead, but forgotten, in front of the TV on. As the booklet says, the story was real. The album rather resembles a person's diaries, his routine experiences, both adolescent and mature. Steve shows himself as a poet of the highest quality and as a conceptual artist, touching on the problems of abandonment and alienation in the modern world. Absorption of a routine that interferes with development and self-improvement. The main line is the author's worries about his unrealized human potential, and the second side is short human memory. The ability of people to forget quickly those who were once near. The voice is in great shape and the lyrics blend perfectly with incredible and non-trivial music. Which is revealed in ALL facets: from heavy metal to airy, almost intangible angelic chants, coupled with a huge palette of musical instruments. From acoustic guitars to hard syncopated metalized drums. Everything is extremely incredible and laconic, and does not contain a single passing note, let alone a composition. What I love Steven Wilson for is his humanity and ability to turn a rather soulless and cold direction into something clear and tangible, while not slipping into the vulgarity of "commonplaces". Isn't this genius? To describe each track, whole notebooks are needed, and it is better to hear everything yourself. But you can dwell on the basic. The leitmotif of the album can be considered "Perfect Life", which is absolutely not like anything at all, but it contains a simple and terrible thought: "Each of us has our own Perfect Life", and we are the creators of our alienation. Towards the end of the song, the chorus of "We Have Got a Perfect Life" grows into a huge number of voices, as if every one of hundreds of people is in this "perfect" state. This is the very creepy "Perfect Imperfect", catching everyone in their chains and forcing them to forget about everything and everyone. First, opera singer Ninet Tayeb testifies in a cold voice about her dead and forgotten sister. And it is no coincidence in the phrase "Hand. Cannot. Erase." after each word a dot - it turns out that life and destiny can be deleted from our consciousness, because each of us has our own perfect life. Well, the composition "Transience", in strength and beauty, is incomparable with anything, except perhaps with the best albums of the 70s. Powerful, tragic, eerie, majestic. This is a whole rock opera in 12 minutes, which reflects a whole universe of ideas and styles. Well, the ending of the album "Happy Returns", Merry Christmas. An unsent letter found near the deceased. However, no matter how I describe this album, all the metaphors pale in comparison with the original source. Better to hear it once. p.s. We have got, we have got a perfect life...