TO THE BONE

Sure, Steven Wilson's To The Bone is pop - but Peter Gabriel made pop, Kate Bush made pop, Brian Eno and David Byrne made pop, even Robert Fripp has been known to dabble in the form from time to time.

To The Bone is very much an entry in the same tradition as the progressive pop/art rock output of such artists, and Wilson applies himself to the form adeptly. After all, hasn't he been in this sort of territory before? Late 1990s Porcupine Tree and No-Man have their pop aspects, after all. If all pop music were like this, then top 40 radio would be a much more pleasant experience - but really, the album more or less lands on the art rock side of the art rock/pop divide if it resides anywhere.

If you think Wilson has no business doing anything but putting out 20-minute long jazz-prog explorations like Raider II from Grace For Drowning (with perhaps some breaks allowed to remix a few classic 1970s prog albums), then sure, this isn't going to be for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoyed the lighter moments of Porcupine Tree - or, for that matter, the man's own solo career! - then this isn't going to be a shocking departure so much as it is a return to a corner of his creative garden he goes back to from time to time. The end result isn't earthshaking, but it is rather lovely.