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Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) CD (album) cover

THE RAVEN THAT REFUSED TO SING (AND OTHER STORIES)

Steven Wilson

 

Crossover Prog

4.31 | 2369 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Kempokid
2 stars Despite repeated listens to Steven Wilson's third album, I've never been able to get properly into it, despite the fact that it has been praised as a masterpiece by many, as I find it to honestly be a tiring, somewhat dull listen. Almost all of the songs here are at least somewhat derivative of the prog giants of the 70s, often quite heavily, leading to a collection of songs that lack the same fire that the classics had, leading to a dreary bunch of songs that end up missing the mark to at least some extent. Furthermore, unlike with what normally happens with compositions by Steven Wilson, this contains a significant amount of extended solos and instrumental sections, which not only feel overlong, but also remove the emotional impact that is trying to be achieved in many cases.

A big issue in the album is the fact that many songs have some strong ideas, but then drop the ball, leading to many songs feeling somewhat half baked. 'Luminol' starts off incredibly strong for the first 4 minutes, with a great, energetic bassline with various instruments being played over the top, including an impressive flute solo. This part strongly reminds me of 'Yes' with a bit of 'The Mars Volta' thrown in as well. Unfortunately, after the extremely promising intro, the song slows down considerably, invoking an atmosphere akin to a weaker version of the song 'In The Court Of The Crimson King'. this section drags on far too long and leads to the momentum that was being built up to become lost, meandering in mediocrity for a while, before trying to reclaim what was lost at the end. Both the songs 'Drive Home' and 'The Pin Drop' are extremely tiring to me, and end up causing me to lose any interest in continuing to listen to the album past those points. 'Drive Home' is quite beautiful, but drags on far too long, especially the 4 minute guitar solo, which while very impressive, is also quite boring by the end and feels like it could have been shortened considerably. 'The Pin Drop' breaks the mold of the album by just being quite poor all the way through, rather than just for a portion of it, sounding like a budget 'Porcupine Tree' song, with vocals that are quite weak. 'The Watchmaker' is by far the biggest example of wasted potential however, as the first few minutes are incredibly beautiful and full of powerful emotion, which ends up fading during a long instrumental break, which is a major shame considering how great I find the lyrics. 'The Holy Drinker' and the title track are both fairly worthy songs however, with 'The Holy Drinker' being a fun, enjoyable prog rock track, abandoning the attempts to make an emotionally moving song, instead having the lyrics be about a priest who loses a drinking contest against the devil. While the song undoubtedly carries on for a bit too long, it is not as big an issue as with the rest of the album, and sounds mostly great. The title track is by far the best song here however, successfully doing everything that most of the rest of the album failed to do, creating an extremely powerful, emotional song with good progression and tasteful instrumental sections. The crescendo throughout is extremely slow and subtle, with the climax only being slightly more eventful than the rest of the song, but it works absolutely perfectly, producing what I can easily call one of Steven Wilson's greatest solo songs, and saves the album from being rated even lower.

Despite the immense amount of potential this album has, it drops the ball at almost every turn, and the exquisite production and interesting concept don't do enough to save the album. When it comes down to it, every track other than the title track needs to be cut in some way, since the album as it is happens to be quite bloated and uninteresting for the majority of its length.

Best songs: The Holy Drinker, The Raven That Refused To Sing

Weakest songs: Drive Home, The Pin Drop

Verdict: An album with a great deal of potential, but despite each song having some great ideas, almost all of them drop the ball in one way or another, leading to a patchy record that is bloated and downright boring in places. Since this is such an acclaimed album, I feel like I'm missing something here, so give it a listen anyway if you enjoy Steven Wilson's music, you'll probably enjoy it.

Kempokid | 2/5 |

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