GRACE FOR DROWNING

Steven Wilson

Crossover Prog

4.21 | 1936 ratings

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Dobermensch
Prog Reviewer

This is one of those albums where it seems pointless writing a review simply because it's going to be lost in a morass of other people's opinions and scribblings.

Ah, what the hell, I've started now - 'Grace for Drowning' is a superbly recorded and unusual album for 2011. However, It's not a masterpiece.

Literally every tune shows traces of Steven Wilson's influences which somewhat belittles it as you can't help thinking throughout ...'Well I never- that sounds just like Floyd' or... 'Blimey, there's some of that keyboard that Schulze used in '76 that only held a vocal note for 8 seconds' or... 'Crumbs, those off beat drums sound just like Gentle Giant'. etc etc.

More than any other artist, this is heavily Robert Fripp's 'Red' King Crimson territory . In particular 'Sectarian' which really kicks ass in a far more modern and bass driven and heavy way.

There are two very non-descript pointless tracks in the form of 'Pastcard' and 'Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye' which the album could have done well without, which could have made it a single cd. Annoyingly, the latter is the outro.

Looking on the bright side, there are some absolute stonkers in here... 'Remainder the Black Dog' - is simply one of the best songs I've heard this year, even if there are a parts of 'Wish You Were Here', the 'Wall' and even some Binsen Echo Units from 'Meddle' used.

'Belle de Jour' sounds just like how the film should have looked with the untouchably beautiful Catherine Deneuve in the mid 60's.

'Grace for Drowning' has a real mish-mash of styles and sound that if taken as a whole could be the entire Prog Rock archive compressed into one edible chunk, with all genres investigated, bar 'Zeuhl'.

Of particular interest is the superb 'Index' - which really hits the mark through the lyrics, as I'm sure a lot of you guys would agree? I'm one of those 'weird' collectors Steve Wilson sings about!

There's something for everybody on this album, which is recorded in a very caring and precise way, and unbelievably includes blonde mop head Nick Beggs - bass player from Kajagoogoo! I always wondered what happened to him...

Inspiring... Just when I thought prog was dead...

Dobermensch | 4/5 | 2011-11-24

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