This is exactly where I'm at. This album just isn't for me. I love his albums up to and including To the Bone, but he lost me quite suddenly after that (including the C/C album which for some reason didn't click at all). But oh well, you can't love everything and I've got an extensive collection of his past music to keep me entertained when I'm in the mood for it.Originally Posted by Dedatolo
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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Someone on the Opeth sub Reddit posted (paraphrasing): early days but fav album he's ever made. So, very polarizing.
Download successful. Thank you Steven Wilson. $10 Canadian for the download and two bonus tracks; very fair. This way, he gets his money, I don't have to feel odd about ripping the music from Youtube, and if I really like the album, I can always order a surround sound version...everybody wins. And for anybody wondering about the quality, you have the option of mp3, flac, or wav.
Still haven't heard a note. I know what I'll be listening to today.
Neil
EDIT: The bonus tracks are just remixes of existent album tracks, so not new songs
Last edited by boilk; 09-30-2023 at 11:50 AM.
Strangely, I LOVE C/C, a lot, it's right below "In Absentia" (of course the best PT album, by far).....what a wonderful world :-)
It's growing on me but only maybe Economies of Scale and What Life Brings are recognisable as SW style songs, everything else is in a different mood completely. So in some ways its disappointing but I'm hoping to enjoy it the more I listen. Even though its very experimental at times it also seems more generic and mainstream, no doubt aimed at a wider audience. To make Prog comparisons its more Peter Gabriel than Genesis and more 80's than 70's if that makes any kind of sense. Just my impressions...
I’m way more impressed with the complete album than I was with the advance tracks. They probably should have gone with Wilson’s idea to drop the album in full instead of doing “singles”.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
The SW website offer of a THC download for only £4.99 is available until 6th October for those interested. Happy to help anyone who’s having problems and needs a UK contact.
https://store.stevenwilsonhq.com/product/122975
Ohhh…THC! Now I get it.
Not for me, either. Sounds Techno-Pop to me with three or four exceptions: What Life Brings, Economies of Scale, Time is Running Out, and Staircase.
I received the album today and i like it.
Techno-pop is the old name that the press used to use for what now is commonly known as synth-pop, comment assumes that's the intended meaning.
As a synth-pop fan and self professed connoisseur I respectfully disagree - If you want to hear an act that ACTUALLY went synth-pop, check ULVER. THAT is what going synth-pop sounds like.
IMHO I would directly compare it with well, what else, but Radiohead, electronica infused modern rock with lots of ambient influence with a prog influence that fortunately, Steven has never had any issue admittingwhile Radiohead denies it
That if, of course my humble opinion. YMMV
Last edited by vmartell; 10-01-2023 at 12:39 PM.
I'm pretty much liking this album so far.
Had my first spin yesterday. I like it. It sounds fresher, and feels like he has found his footing again (yes, I know some of you liked TTB, TFB, so he never lost it perhaps). There is some strong material on here and it held my interest. The one thing that maybe I didn't gravitate to as much on first spin, is that a big chunk of the middle part of the album seems to be slow to mid-tempo, so I'm curious to see how that grows on me. But, I'm liking it and perhaps at this point, what he does best is to combine a range of styles across one album. I'm definitely glad, that I didn't listen to any of the songs in advance.
I mean, the man has been making albums across multiple projects for over 30 years. Not many people can keep making interesting music over such a long time span. You can't expect a radical change in feel at this point. He has musical genres that he likes, and he is going to explore in various combinations, and some will be more interesting to listeners than others. He's had a remarkable career, really.
Neil
I found it hard to know what to make of this album at first but I'm really enjoying it now too. Still trying to get my head fully around it but it gets better with each successive play. Is it a return to form? Not quite if you want another HCE etc but it's a new direction which is still enjoyable.
Well said.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
My fav SW albums:
Blackwater Park
Deliverance
Damnation
After two runs I’m not able to decide. It has some cool tracks and I like the overall sound better than TFB, but also some in the first and middle parts that made me remain whelmed. Several tracks felt like a slow track to function as an intermission of sorts on a different album.
Staircase is what made the largest impression so far. Around 5:50 there’s a piano line that I thought would segway into the beginning of Sentimental from FOABP by PT.
Too early to tell what longevity it will have. I haven’t been truly captured by SW or PT albums since HCE. I’ve heard TTB, TFB and C/C multiple times, but at one point I stopped. There was no drive to put them on.
Is this the first album where he’s not included a single song that could be considered prog rock of the likes that made him famous with PT? I thought TTB and TFB still had some remains of that, but don’t recall it from THC.
I was shocked by how much I like this album!
I really fell of the fan boy wagon with TTB and TFB. Big time. I've been a huge fan since Signify, everything he did was on auto-buy, until TTB. I got fed up with all his chatter about being a pop writer, to my mind his is definitely NOT a good pop writer, and how spectacular the next piece was. Name dropping bands he listens to, as if that added credibility to what he was putting out, smashing iPods, rehashing the same old shit decade after decade...My problem isn't that he is into so many different styles, some of which aren't to my taste, but that I lost the sense of who he was rather than who he was copying/influenced by.
The new PT album felt more like a solo project more than a PT project to me. Nothing new to my ears.
His statements this new album was, whatever adjectives he was using at the time, were held deeply suspect given he said the same stuff on his previous two pieces.
But both tunes he put out really caught my ear.
I listened to the album when it came out and was floored! Surprisingly so.
Yeah, its chock full of his influences and styles, even some new flavors I haven't heard him use before, but it's his! It finally feels like he's settled into his style without trying to be the artists that inform his style.
Ive already listened to this way more than anything he's been involved in since HCE.
Just my two cents...
I don't believe I've seen anyone review the Atmos mix.
I'm already leaning against buying this CD unless the surround version really makes up for what I've heard so far in stereo.
JG
"MARKLAR!"
Like you I've been a fan since Signify and agree it's easily the best since HCE. There are just two tracks which I don't like namely Actual Brutal Facts and Beautiful Scarecrow. Aside from those I am really loving all the rest, the closing minutes of Staircase with Adam's Moog and the reprise of Rotem's spoken word sections from the title track are just sublime. With every play it gets better.I was shocked by how much I like this album!
I really fell of the fan boy wagon with TTB and TFB. Big time. I've been a huge fan since Signify, everything he did was on auto-buy, until TTB. I got fed up with all his chatter about being a pop writer, to my mind his is definitely NOT a good pop writer, and how spectacular the next piece was. Name dropping bands he listens to, as if that added credibility to what he was putting out, smashing iPods, rehashing the same old shit decade after decade...My problem isn't that he is into so many different styles, some of which aren't to my taste, but that I lost the sense of who he was rather than who he was copying/influenced by.
The new PT album felt more like a solo project more than a PT project to me. Nothing new to my ears.
His statements this new album was, whatever adjectives he was using at the time, were held deeply suspect given he said the same stuff on his previous two pieces.
But both tunes he put out really caught my ear.
I listened to the album when it came out and was floored! Surprisingly so.
Yeah, its chock full of his influences and styles, even some new flavors I haven't heard him use before, but it's his! It finally feels like he's settled into his style without trying to be the artists that inform his style.
Ive already listened to this way more than anything he's been involved in since HCE.
Just my two cents...
I agree with large chunks of this. I only started at In Absentia, but also got off the auto buy train at TTB. I didn't get as fed up about his chatter, but I can see how it was becoming a bit much for some. The one thing that surprises me a little, is that you feel that the new PT album felt like more of a solo project. Obviously, all PT albums are centered around his song writing, but C/C supposedly had the most writing input from the others.I was shocked by how much I like this album!
I really fell of the fan boy wagon with TTB and TFB. Big time. I've been a huge fan since Signify, everything he did was on auto-buy, until TTB. I got fed up with all his chatter about being a pop writer, to my mind his is definitely NOT a good pop writer, and how spectacular the next piece was. Name dropping bands he listens to, as if that added credibility to what he was putting out, smashing iPods, rehashing the same old shit decade after decade...My problem isn't that he is into so many different styles, some of which aren't to my taste, but that I lost the sense of who he was rather than who he was copying/influenced by.
The new PT album felt more like a solo project more than a PT project to me. Nothing new to my ears.
His statements this new album was, whatever adjectives he was using at the time, were held deeply suspect given he said the same stuff on his previous two pieces.
But both tunes he put out really caught my ear.
I listened to the album when it came out and was floored! Surprisingly so.
Yeah, its chock full of his influences and styles, even some new flavors I haven't heard him use before, but it's his! It finally feels like he's settled into his style without trying to be the artists that inform his style.
Ive already listened to this way more than anything he's been involved in since HCE.
Just my two cents...
And I don't think that he's a great pop song writer, either. At least over a whole album. You can argue that Piano Lessons (Stupid Dream) and Lazarus (Deadwing) are great pop songs, for example, but in general, it's not his strongest suit, IMO. I always found it interesting that SW just assumed that The Future Bites was rejected by some, just because it wasn't prog...never once considering the fact that maybe it's just not a great effort at a mainstream album. Then again, some people like TFB, and it was also his first real stab at writing an album loaded with poppier material, so there is that.
But yes, I do like The Harmony Codex and am happy that he continues to put out music.
Neil
My only complaint about C/C was its difficulty in buying a non-deluxe physical product. I ended up just getting the download, unlike all of my other PT/SW releases.
I listened to TFB via the Amazon Unlimited app (and didn't make it all the way through some of the pieces) and concluded I'd never listen to it, so I didn't even investigate the availability of the physical product.
"Actual Brutal Facts" and "Beautiful Scarecrow" are my favourite songs (along with "Staircase") of the album.
My progressive music site: https://pienemmatpurot.com/ Reviews in English: https://pienemmatpurot.com/in-english/
I didn't think it would be long before someone said that"Actual Brutal Facts" and "Beautiful Scarecrow" are my favourite songs (along with "Staircase") of the album.
I thought that would raise an eyebrow or two. As I wrote that, it felt to me like the original PT was PT even though it was Wilson's baby, and his solo felt unlike PT. Strangely, the new PT did feel to me more like a continuation of his solo work. His solo work from the start, Insurgentes, had some of the PT feel to it, while his later work started having more of his own. I've gone back to The Raven recently, and I think that's a start to finish consistent ass kicker, just a tad over HCE. So perhaps listening more to his solo work than that of PT over the years is why C/C feels more like his. And I realize it was a group collaboration.
I admit, maybe I was still a bit too jaded about Wilson to listen to it clearly, and need a revisit or two!
All that being said, Im happy they got the turnout they seemed to have! Those crowds in South America were fucking HUGE! I first saw them with 48 other people at the Bottom Line in NYC!
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