COVER VERSION

In parallel with his work in Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson spent the 2000s putting out a series of solo singles in the Cover Version series, each covering a different artist's song on side A and then providing an original Wilson song on side B. Cover Version is a compilation which brings all of this material together into a sort of "lost album".

The exact running order depends on which edition you get - some versions put all the cover versions together and all the original material together, while others mingle them, but either way what you get is a subdued art rock treatment of the material here - Steven doesn't go full prog simply because many of the songs he's tackling don't lend themselves to that, but he does add a distinctive aesthetic touch. (Never have ABBA sounded so sombre, for instance.)

As far as the original material goes, it sounds like Wilson was using the series to provide an outlet for the sort of material which had been part of the Porcupine Tree sound back when it was basically a solo project of his own, but which fell by the wayside as it shifted into being more of a band - The Unquiet Grave, in particular, sounds like something which might conceivably have appeared on Up the Downstair, whilst Well You're Wrong is a slice of the sort of whimsical psychedelic pop that the earliest Porcupine Tree releases dipped into.

Don't expect anything too much like either Wilson's previous or subsequent solo albums or, for that matter, his other musical projects - this is another body in the same sonic universe, with some aesthetic features in common with other musical worlds of Wilson's construction but its own particular way of doing things.