Steven Wilson – To The Bone

Great sounding 45rpm vinyl and a noiseless pressing. There could be more depth and richness in the sound, but that is picking nits. Highly recommended.

Steven Wilson goes pop they say.. But only "Permanating" on this album is a pop song. Although, i have a hard time trying to complete the full listening experience with that song in there. It just does not fit in with the other tracks to be honest, because the rest is prog-gold.
As usual, Steven´s album is centred around something he that you probably felt get into you at certain point in life. Terrorism, Religious conflict and all that has filled the media in the last 2 years. So he writes an album about this "People Who Eat Darkness" for instance is about how frightening it can be to have these people with hate and violence around you. He can live across the street from you. He can even be your neighbour. To The Bone deals with a global problem.
As always, sounding great.. Despite how and where this album was recorded, namely in Paul Staceys "Studio". If you haven´t seen how Paul operates and how his recording environment is, its quite the opposite of a professional studio where everything is tidy and neat. Paul´s studio is in a house filled to the brim with old and new guitars, drums, thousands of guitar pedals and old vintage synths. Every room in his house is loaded with something.. Is like multiroom garage that haven't been cleaned for years. Pauls console is buried between stacks of papers, coffee cups and walls of rack units. There is no recording booth in this studio. But there is a room loaded with "stuff".. just set up something and record what you need. You can barely fit a drumkit in there..
For sure the aftertouches as always added at Wilson´s House. Orchestration recorded somewhere else.

I had a hard time digest this album. I heard it once and left it aside. But i caught Steven Wilson on his "To The Bone Tour" and he played material from this album in a way that triggered my senses again. SO.. yes it is a brilliant album. Give it a chance.. a long HARD chance and you will feel Wilson´s remarkable songwriting talent and craftsmanship.
Favourite track is Detonation for me. Absolute blast that sounded even better Live.

I bought 3 copies of this album on vinyl, unfortunately all 3 have an extreme noise. I would not have expected that from perfectionist Steven Wilson. I still have a white copy that does not rustle like that.
Hubi

Is there anyobody here that has the Limited Signed Edition Blu ray sold at shopsuperdeluxe.com ? This comes with an exclusive art card with a Steven Wilson original autograph. Web site tells this edition was limited to only 100 copies. I think there should be a dedicated release entry for this.