By Karan Patel (Simple Complex Continuity)
Steven Wilson, the primary creative force behind progressive rock’s most iconic band, Porcupine Tree, recently came out with a solo effort called Grace For Drowning. To be more precise, it was out in September, 2011. I only heard it in April, 2012. I had heard about such a solo album to be out by one of favorite musicians and he had a show in LA in the House of Blues, Sunset Strip. I decided not to hear a single song and just go for the show. Here’s the reason: I went for a Porcupine Tree show some time ago when they were touring for “The Incident”. The band literally played each and every song that was on the album. It was the best concert I had ever been too. Yes, I am super biased because you just possibly cannot find flaws with the music they have made.
The live performance was better than expected. Like every progressive band, they utilized a lot of arts/visuals which were more than mesmerizing and perfectly synchronized with the songs in a way that there indeed was another band member playing an instrument to go along with the songs. The solo effort is more than incredible. Steven Wilson already has a reputation of contributing his talents in many a pool. Whether its Opeth/Storm Corrosion or Blackfield, he has only written good music. Period.
Grace For Drowning is definitely a masterpiece and well, bonus points for solo. A very big applause to all his band members. They all did more than a brilliant job. My favorite one being Raider II, an epic 23 minute song which takes me back to days when I was and still obsessed with Dream Theater‘s “Change Of Seasons”. As a writer myself, I am totally obsessed with his style of writing lyrics. It never ceases to amaze me. Be it Porcupine Tree, or his solo, he has a phenomenal talent with words and there is just no escape from it.
I am not sure if he was always a multi instrumentalist, but in the concert he was mostly on the keyboards and of course the guitar. It was definitely fun to see him on the keyboards. The album has all the Porcupine Tree elements embedded with electronica, ambient, psychedelic rock. Most interestingly, it has a lot of jazz elements (something I do not understand, and probably don’t want to, at least at this stage of my life). However, it was very interesting to hear a mix of all these sounds under the general progressive sound which I am completely nuts about.
The album is such a trip. The production is way beyond spectacular. The writing is incredible and the music is just so evolved in today’s times with the whole mix of genres, old and new, that it has had me listening to it since I went for the show. A must listen, especially if you have a taste for the progressive sound.
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