Steven Wilson
To The Bone CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL. CD/DL/LP/BR
Fifth solo album by the producer and former Porcupine Tree mainman. To The Bone keeps its pop and prog influences in a near perfect balance – flash and flamboyant at times but with some lovingly crafted big tunes. While the lyrics on the title track address the edginess of these post-truth times, the lush chord changes recall Tears For Fears circa Sowing The Seeds Of Love, until a startling key change leads us into a grand Rundgren-esque coda. The album has an expansive, punchy sound with Jeff Lynne-like falsetto lines shaping Permanating and an extravagant and at times eerie string arrangement on Song Of I. There’s an acoustic cameo in Blank Tapes, and only the nine-minute Detonation feels a tad overcooked. The track that sticks most in the mind, though, is Wilson’s duet with Israeli musician Ninet Tayeb on Pariah. With its massed banks of pseudo-orchestral synths it’s a power ballad of the most heaven-storming kind.