Steven Wilson - “To The Bone:”

Some people have the opinion this is not one of his best solo albums, but as it’s been said, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink. But enough graphic exposition.

If anyone ever reads this article you will know that I generally don’t write about music I don’t like. I want to turn people on to music that resonates with me and this album is no exception. If, again, anyone ever reads my stuff they’ll know that I’m a total fanboy for Wilson; Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield; I love it all. He and I share a love for Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel and his music is heavily influenced by those kinds of artists.

This is a progressive rock album with a very light jazz infusion, but don’t let the j-word scare you off if like me you’re not a jazz fan. This is British progressive rock at its finest. Wilson is the inheritor of the Pink Floyd, Genesis, Gabriel mantel. He’s by all accounts a pretty humble guy and in my book he’s a genius. This is telling on myself that I have every Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield and Wilson solo album in my collection. Since some audio engineer friends introduced me to his music it’s been what I listen to often. I used to listen to more podcasts than I do today, but because it’s so depressing I listen to more music, and it’s been good for my emotional health. I recommend it. I still know what’s going on in the world but I can’t focus too much on it. Enough of that.

I want to pause for a moment to talk about an essential element on, “To The Bone.” Her name is Ninet Tayeb, an Israeli vocalist who has worked with Wilson on a number of projects. When I went to YouTube to check out his music the first video I watched was a duet with Tayeb called, “Rock Bottom,” (from Wilson’s, “The Harmony Codex” album.) It’s an obvious throwback to the Peter Gabriel video for, “Don’t Give Up,” a duet he did with Kate Bush. (That’s also worth watching.) If you haven’t heard of Tayeb before you’re going to soon. She’s amazing and features prominently on this album.

The album opens with the title track and Jasmine Walkes doing a short speaking segment:

“Once we've made sense of our world

We wanna go fuck up everybody else's, because his or her truth doesn't match mine

But this is the problem

Truth is individual calculation

Which means because we all have different perspectives, there isn't one singular truth, is there?”

The music intensifies in a minor key with a guitar and piano over a harmonica part. Then it starts to rock. There’s no better word. Wilson’s guitar work is always exceptional and it shines here. Not bad for a boy from Hamstead Heath, (a very small town in the south of England.) Wilson’s lyrics are some of my most memorable throughout his work. Wilson and Tayeb start singing with an aggressive drum beat in the background:

“Hold on

Down and deeper

Down we're going

Way down through the floor

Ho ho

Don't you wanna see what's at the core?

Truth is the icy clear stream we dream about

Drinking from

But if the liquidate liars should they rewire

It's smiling bomb

Hold on

Down and down and down and down

We're melting down their throne

Ho ho

Down through every superstition

Virgin, whore, and crone

Hold on

Down through all the fear gods

To the very truth alone

Hold on

Down and down we're going to the bone..”

This song slaps and it’s only the first song of an incredible lineup. I’m going to quote lyrics somewhat extensively for two reasons; the first is that I’m a lyric guy, the second is the lyrics tell the story. Music, whether it’s rock or “The Marriage of Figaro,” tells a story.

So let’s get into, “Nowhere Now,” the second track on the album. It opens with a pleasant piano melody, then Wilson comes in on guitar and the drums join in along with the keyboards. There’s an electric and acoustic guitar driving the melody along with the keyboards:

“Six feet underground, we move backwards now

At the speed of sound, we are nowhere now

Too much time to kill, too much wasted ink

Too much everything, there's no need to think

Here above the clouds, I am free of all the crowds

And I float above the stars, and I feel the rush of love

Looking down at Earth, it is luminous observed

We had every chance, but we never learn

We just make it worse, what we don't deserve

The principle of love has no meaning here

'Cause if you don't adhere, better get out while you can..”

There are a lot of amazing drummers out there and Wilson seems to have a talent for finding them, from Gavin Harrison on PT albums to Jeremy Stacey on this track. The album itself, released in 2017, is according to Wilson inspired by the music of his youth including; Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Talk Talk and Tears For Fears. Great role models if you ask me. The music press and the public loved this album, the press saying it had influences of Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode, Radiohead and Todd Rundgren. All of those are bands that I know Wilson loves because he said so. I won’t name the entire lineup in this article because you can find it easily enough, but I will talk about some of them in the course of this missive.

The next track, “Pariah,” is a soft tune where Wilson and Tayeb exchange vocal parts. Ninet Tayeb has a wonderful smoky jazz sound to her voice and I love listening to it:

“I'm tired of weakness

Tired of my feet of clay

I'm tired of days to come

I'm tired of yesterday

And all the worn out things that I ever said

Now it's much too late

The words stay in my head

So the day will begin again

Take comfort from me

It's up to you now

You're still here and you'll dig in again

That's comfort to you

It's up to you now

So pariah you'll begin again

Take comfort from me

And I will take comfort from you

I'm tired of Facebook

Tired of my failing health

I'm tired of everyone

And that includes myself

Well being alone now

It doesn't bother me

But not knowing if you are

That's been hell you see..”

Wilson sings the first verse, Tayeb the second and so on. I love the line:

“.. I'm tired of Facebook

Tired of my failing health

I'm tired of everyone

And that includes myself..”

I identify. I deleted my Facebook account and it was a healthy decision. And sometimes I get tired of back pain, the bullshit of others, and my own bullshit.

And I’ve definitely felt like a pariah at times. As a recovering alcoholic I’ve found myself at the bottom of the barrel so to speak. “You’re still here and you’ll begin again.” Yeah. You sober up, clean up your mess, make amends, and pay it forward. The pariah state doesn’t have to be permanent. But even now and then I remember how it was to be unlovable, and I remember how my partner, my family and my friends helped me find my way back into the light. Time to disembark from the maudlin train.

The next track is another rocker, “The Same Asylum As Before.” Again the lyrics drive the story:

“Are you proud of all your failures?

Are you dragging mother nature down?

You believe you have dominion

So you force your lame opinions on me

And my eggshell mind

Wake it up to see through you

We'll all disappear in the same asylum as before

Make it up you always do

It's tough to live here in the same asylum as before

You have your inspiration

You control in domination, yeah

You represent the people

But you don't believe in free will for me

And my eggshell mind..”

“Are you dragging Mother Nature down?” Fuck me and my “eggshell mind.” Aren’t we all? As it is with a lot of songs from this album and a lot of Wilson’s other work the guitar drives the music and the narrative. One of the things I like about his music on Porcupine Tree albums and his solo albums is the incorporation of heavy metal guitar as an element in progressive rock. He didn’t invent it but has honed it to perfection. His No-Man project with Tim Bowness is more of an aural soundscape sound and Blackfield is a pop-rock project of largely 3-5 minute songs. I would characterize his solo work as progressive rock ala Peter Gabriel with a metal guitar flair. I wouldn’t describe the metal guitar on PT and his solo albums as dominant, just a facet of the overall sound.

The next track is “Rufuge.” It opens with a kind of Alan Parsons Project or Pink Floyd spacey sound before a classic piano comes in, a very common opening for a progressive rock song. I’m sure like me you can easily think of many songs that begin in this manner:

“Here in the wreckage

The winter is hard

I sleep in the same clothes

That I dragged through the mud

And if you ask me

Nothing's changed

There's nowhere else I can go

So I stay

We're writhing rats

We make beds in the straw

And then we build houses

Paint our names on the door

And if you ask me again

Is this life?

I don't see I have a choice

But I still smile..”

A hi-hat joins in with a symphonic keyboard sound as the song builds. The acoustic piano sound is still dominant as a great drum rhythm joins in. Adam Holzman plays piano on this track as well as a number of others, The London Session Orchestra provides the strings arranged by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame, a veritable cornucopia of musical talent. At the crescendo Wilson comes in with a solo on his ubiquitous Paul Reed Smith electric guitar. The PRS is an amazing instrument. Carlos Santana plays one, as does a friend of mine who is a very talented guitarist. I’m not a guitar player but I’ve played around with my friend’s PRS and it has a nice feel to it.

So now we’re on to track six, “Permanating.” This is a pop, I would almost say a throw-away tune. It’s catchy, fun. It’s also my least favorite songs on the album. I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s has a sort of 1970s feel to it. I don’t skip past it when I’m listening to the album. It puts me in mind of a Beatles song after a fashion although I wouldn’t describe it as such.

I don’t know I’ve mentioned in this article that Wilson is a brilliant audio engineer as well as a musician. He’s remastered classic albums by Ultravox, Yes, and King Crimson to name but a few. That was my introduction to him. I was collecting a few multi-disc remastered anniversary albums and after each track was “Steven Wilson remix” in parenthesis. It means that every Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield, and SW solo album are beautifully recorded and mastered. I’m not an engineer of any sort but I think that SW and Bob Clearmountain are possibly the two best audio engineers in the world. (For more on Clearmountain see my article on The Band - “Stage Fright.”)

“Blank Tapes” is track seven. The song opens with an acoustic guitar and piano. This is another song where Wilson and Tayeb trade vocals on the verses and sing the choruses together:

“All that I know is

You'll be gone before I get home

Heartbreaker butterfly

On a wheel before I let go

Nothing left for us

Nothing is left but the blank tapes

Nothing left for us

Nothing is left but the blank tapes

In your car..”

There’s a bit more to the lyrics but it’s a short, lovely song. And this brings us to another of my favorite songs, “People Who Eat Darkness.” This is another rocker and I love the lyrics:

“I live in the flat next door

And I can hear you fuck your girlfriend through the wall

But the only thing we share

Is the slightest nod as we're passing on the stairs

But behind the closed doors

The bees were buzzing inciting me to war

You're penitent, maybe

But it's really not your fault you fail to see

We who eat the darkness

We who eat the darkness

I take out the trash at night

And on Thursday's I go shopping for supplies

I walk my son to school

And I seem to have the same problems as you

But what you will see

Are the threads of what I want you to believe

And all that you hold dear

Is under threat from someone all too near..”

Wilson is a multi-instrumentalist and he plays guitar, bass, and keyboards, in addition to vocals on almost every track. The mark of a brilliant musician like Pete Townsend, (The Who,) and Wilson is they can play multiple instruments and do it really well. I’ve known maybe five multi-instrumentalists personally, (so far,) and they’re not only great musicians but they’re highly intelligent, creative people. The ones I’ve known have the kind of mind that moves much faster than your average person. My partner has a truly brilliant mind and I’m not the only person who says that by far. His thoughts move so fast that I cannot imagine how people like him deal with those of us who, while intelligent and educated, don’t have minds that move at the speed of light. It must take incredible patience.

On the next track, “Song Of I,” Wilson and vocalist Sophie Hunger perform what reminds me of a Peter Gabriel song from one of his first three albums. It’s a low-key progressive rock tune with a funky rhythm. Everything from the rhythm to the way the symphonic part builds to the backing vocals is reminiscent of an old PG tune.

“Detonation,” the next track, also has a Gabriel sound and vibe to it. Wilson is very open in interviews about his musical influences and PG is one of them. This song has more of a vibe from the later PG album, “Up.” Maybe it’s the dark minor key sound of the vocals and rhythms that I cannot help but draw the parallels between the two artists.

The final track is, “Song Of Unborn.” This song starts with a simple piano, Wilson’s vocals, and a slow percussion rhythm:

“..Hail God, I had a dream of you

And how you respond

When your ego's bruised

They laugh and sneak as they know you're weak

But I'll make them pay

With an IED,

And the ones who are given it all

The good looks, the wealth and the charm and the innocence

They are all gonna fall

But I will (I will take it back)

Take it back

Whining God, who the fuck are you?

Detonation for the greater good

Swim here, come and hear my heartal

'Cause when the world breaks

You will feel the blast.”

Dave Stewart once again arranges the strings performed by The London Session Orchestra. This is a lush, gentle song that provides a nice finish to the album.

“To The Bone” might not be as popular as some of his other solo albums but I think it’s one of his best. They’re all great so I’m happy to listen to and recommend any and all of them. Whether it’s Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield, or solo work, Wilson produces a consistently high standard of artistry. I can’t believe I was only introduced to him and his work less than two years ago. As a Pink Floyd, Genesis and Peter Gabriel fan for decades one would think I would have heard of this artist a long time ago. Better late than never. I’m really excited about seeing him live in September in San Francisco, (just up the peninsula from where I live.) Growing up on said peninsula I was privileged to have the opportunity to see a lot of great artists live, and no matter where I’ve lived I’ve gone to experience live music. Wilson, having grown up in England, and very close to me in age, has had similar experiences. Where we part ways is that he’s a brilliant musician, composer, and audio engineer while I am just a wretched drummer. Those who can, do. Those who can’t collect the music, go to the concerts, and write about it.