Label: K-Scope
Release year: 2016
Production: Steven Wilson
Album length: 27.07 min
Genre: Progressive Rock / Art Rock
Toward the end of January 2016, Steven Wilson dropped a mini album called “4 ½”, collecting tracks recorded while he was putting together his previous two studio albums, “Hand. Cannot. Erase” (2015) and “The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Short Stories)” (2013). With the title of this EP, Steven let his followers know it’s a stopgap between “Hand. Cannot. Erase” and the upcoming studio album. It’s not the first time he’s put out an EP before his next full-length, so a few fans surely traded looks, wondering whether releasing new (or at least previously unreleased) music this often is really such a great idea. Overproduction can quickly turn into a double-edged sword. Well, so far this drive isn’t hurting Steven one bit, even though the project doesn’t bring any particularly innovative experiments compared to his recent body of work. On the other hand, every track here is up to the quality of the material that made it onto those two albums. Of course, he gets help from a top-notch crew led by Nick Beggs, Guthrie Govan, Marco Minnemann, Dave Kilminster, Theo Travis and Chad Wackerman, while the maestro, as usual, shines on vocals, guitar and additional keyboards.
The opener, “My Book of Regrets”, with its psychedelic-melancholic pulse and a fairly unusual, almost alt-rock chorus, shows off Steven’s incredible ear for building melodic arrangements full of symphonic prog rock and jazz rock fusion touches. The instrumental “Year of the Plague” is a ‘forgotten’ track from the “The Raven That Refused to Sing” era, and it blends perfectly with the dark, mysterious and melancholic atmosphere of that unforgettable album. “Happiness III”, with its upbeat chorus, is another melodic high point of this EP, and Steven once again demonstrates his vocal versatility. The sudden ending, quite unusual for Wilson, leaves a feeling of something unfinished.
“Sunday Rain Sets In”, drenched in indescribable melancholy, is a gorgeous instrumental with subtle arrangements and heart-piercing harmonies on piano, guitar and flute. Near the end there’s an unexpected, very brief shift into a punchy section, before it all wraps up with a flute improvisation. The next instrumental, “Vermillioncore”, is a full-blown jazz-rock/prog-metal improvisational explosion with irritable guitar variations. It’ll thrill everyone who loves Mr. Wilson in his most experimental form, as well as those who usually swear by heavier sounds and are desperately longing for Porcupine Tree to come back to the scene. Right at the end comes a freshly reworked version of the “Stupid Dream” (1999) standard “Don’t Hate Me”, which Wilson re-sang in a live duet with Israeli singer Ninat Tayeb. She already worked with Steven successfully on “Hand. Cannot. Erase”, so it’s no surprise that this duet turns out wonderfully well too, even though the original version is still convincingly better.
The workaholic patron saint of modern prog rock isn’t slowing down. With “4 ½”, his fans will definitely find it a lot easier to wait for the maestro’s next studio album. Some fans’ fear that Steven would start ‘commercializing’ himself too much, after the grumbling that followed the release of the ‘best of’ album “Transcience” (2015), is surely overblown. We saw the same thing with Porcupine Tree, when some feared after the unexpected commercial success of “Deadwing” (2005) that the brilliant singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and sound engineer would at some point ‘sell out’, but money isn’t (at least for now) his top priority, so there’s no need to worry about the quality of his music going forward.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
rating: 8.5 / 10
Tracklist:
1. My Book of Regrets (9:36)
2. Year of the Plague (4:19)
3. Happiness III (4:32)
4. Sunday Rain Sets In (3:55)
5. Vermillioncore (5:14)
6. Don’t Hate Me (9:35)
Lineup:
Steven Wilson – guitar, lead vocals, autoharp, mellotron, piano, percussion, virtual instruments
Adam Holzman – Wurlitzer, Hammond organ, minimoog, Rhodes, piano
Dave Kilminster – guitar (tracks 1 and 6)
Guthrie Govan – guitar (3)
Nick Beggs – bass guitar, Chapman Stick, backing vocals
Craig Blundell – drums (1, 5 and 6)
Marco Minnemann – drums (3)
Chad Wackerman – drums (4)
Theo Travis – woodwinds (4 and 6)
Ninet Tayeb – vocals (6)
