AAJ Review: Steven Wilson: Hand. Cannot. Erase.

[jkelman]

My review of Steven Wilson's Hand. Cannot. Erase., today at All About Jazz.

Sometimes you never can tell. When British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson released the old school progressive rock record The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) (Kscope, 2013), who knew that it would not only turn out to be his best-selling album since walking away from Porcupine Tree to begin an increasingly successful solo career with Insurgentes (Kscope, 2009), but become the most successful album in his entire career, now well into its third decade? That progressive rock has been making a resurgence over the past couple of decades is undeniable; still, that an album based on classic-style ghost stories and filled with all the touchstones that define a great progressive record (and more, given Wilson's broadest of musical proclivities) should do so well--this from an artist on an indie label without the benefit of the big bucks provided by the few remaining majors--seems to support the idea that Wilson is someone whose instincts, aversion to repeating himself and ingrained license to do what he wants can be implicitly trusted. Bucking virtually every convention in today's music business, Wilson's career and exponential rise to fame has, quite simply, been extraordinary.

It would have been easy for Wilson to take the easy route and pump out a Raven, Part II, but instead he has taken an almost complete 180 degree flip with Hand. Cannot. Erase.--his first full-fledged concept album, loosely based on the story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman found dead in her London flat after three years and rather than being the little old lady who died alone as most would expect was, instead, a young, attractive woman with friends and family. Wilson has taken this core idea as the kernel for his own fictitious narrative--challengingly, from the first-person perspective--of a woman who grows up in the late 20th/early 21st century and slowly begins to withdraw from the world, rendering herself increasingly invisible.

Lyrically, it's some of Wilson's best writing to date, capturing the female experience with surprising veracity, the story unfolding to its logical conclusion: a heart-rending letter to her brother that, before concluding with the words "I'm feeling kinda drowsy now so I'll finish this tomorrow" (but, of course, never does), talks about life passing her by "like trains, away but they don't slow down" and how she feels she is "living in parentheses" as she sees "the freaks and dispossessed on day release, avoiding the police" and that she feels as though she's "falling once again but now there's no-one left to catch me." More importantly, Wilson's delivery of the lyrics is as emotive as he's ever been; and no, he's not changed his overall understated approach to singing, but he's become far more masterful at implying much with but the subtlest of gestures, whether it be the slightest bit of vibrato, a hint of grit or a brief jump into falsetto.

Continue reading here...

[100423]

Subscribing so I can read it when I have more time.

[jkelman]

Subscribing so I can read it when I have more time.

Excellent. We've drawn one more person over to the dark side....

BWAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!!!

[chalkpie]

Looking forward to reading this as always John. Maybe this review can help me connect more with the album?

[jkelman]

Looking forward to reading this as always John. Maybe this review can help me connect more with the album?

I would love if it did....along with the interview, which would certainly also help...
Let me know, please!
John

[battema]

Definitely enjoyed the review, John. Save for a few seconds of that Perfect Life tune, I've kind of steered clear of this one...I'm kind of looking forward to hearing something a little different from SW.

Slight tanget: I'm assuming you've heard/will be reviewing Holzman's Deform Variations? Got that one on order, am really curious to hear what it'll be like...

[spotprog]

Very cool review. And as has been said above, I'm steering clear of hearing too much of this before the album arrives on my doorstep. I did grab the title track off of iTunes and watched that Perfect life video once but despite temptation, I am avoiding the Soundcloud clips that are out there. I want to hear the album as a whole as it was meant to be taken in.

[jkelman]

Definitely enjoyed the review, John. Save for a few seconds of that Perfect Life tune, I've kind of steered clear of this one...I'm kind of looking forward to hearing something a little different from SW.

Slight tanget: I'm assuming you've heard/will be reviewing Holzman's Deform Variations? Got that one on order, am really curious to hear what it'll be like...

Thanks, as always, for the kind words...and yes, I do hope, all things being equal (health and other projects) to review Adam's record.

[jkelman]

Very cool review. And as has been said above, I'm steering clear of hearing too much of this before the album arrives on my doorstep. I did grab the title track off of iTunes and watched that Perfect life video once but despite temptation, I am avoiding the Soundcloud clips that are out there. I want to hear the album as a whole as it was meant to be taken in.

Excellent decision! And thanks for the kind words....
Cheers !
John

[Haruspex Carnage]

i don't know man...i hear echoes of the past, as in Wilson's, ALL over this...from chord progressions, moods, textures, programming, lyrics and singing approaches, dynamics...i'm NOT saying i don't appreciate it or don't like, but this isn't exactly the "second coming" here.

If anything that's new on this it's the use of the choirs, a female vocalist, the banjo, some bigger and louder solos, his bellow in Ancestral, and the spoken word bits...honestly that's it.

[Spiral]

It sounds like we're finally moving away from the regressive rock of the last two albums, so I think this has finally tipped me toward buying. Thanks for the good review as usual. I also prefer not hearing much in advance, so well-written blurbs are the next best source for getting impressions in advance.

i hear echoes of the past, as in Wilson's, ALL over this ... If anything that's new on this it's the use of the choirs, a female vocalist, the banjo, some bigger and louder solos, his bellow in Ancestral, and the spoken word bits...honestly that's it.

Well, that's all encouraging stuff to me except the choir (and I've always considered the results good when he's used banjo in the past). A female vocalist actually seems like something Steven's been overdue to try for a while now. For me the question isn't just what elements of the past he's using, it's how he's using them and whether the results seem to have a fresh spin.

[jkelman]

i don't know man...i hear echoes of the past, as in Wilson's, ALL over this...from chord progressions, moods, textures, programming, lyrics and singing approaches, dynamics...i'm NOT saying i don't appreciate it or don't like, but this isn't exactly the "second coming" here.

If anything that's new on this it's the use of the choirs, a female vocalist, the banjo, some bigger and louder solos, his bellow in Ancestral, and the spoken word bits...honestly that's it.

Actually, he's used banjo before with No-Man,

It's no one thing, but the collective whole that I think makes this such a stunner...but to each their own, of course!

[chalkpie]

He also used a banjo on "Trains" on IA.

[Polska]

Fantastic review! Best line/insight: "An album that is nothing like its predecessors but could absolutely not have happened without them"

Can't wait to get mine

[jkelman]

Fantastic review! Best line/insight: "An album that is nothing like its predecessors but could absolutely not have happened without them"

Can't wait to get mine

Thanks. I felt the same way about Sanguine Hum's new record - it's the sum total of Antique Seeking Nuns, Joff Winks Band and Nunbient.

I think that this should be true for evolving artists, hopefully; that their music moves forward, but is the consequence of everything they've done before. Those things may not be reflected overtly, but the experiences gained simply cannot be ignored, even if it's only on a subconscious level.


But thanks for the compliment - always nice to receive kind words from folks who take the time (and given how long I write, that's not insignificant!) to read my stuff. And I hope you get yours soon. I am waiting for my Deluxe Edition too, because I'll finally stop having to listen to a stream, and hear it in high res. I can tell it's going to kick ass in high res
Cheers!
John

[Haruspex Carnage]

Are there leftovers from the sessions that didn't make the full album? i feel like he always does such...they on the deluxe?

[jkelman]

Are there leftovers from the sessions that didn't make the full album? i feel like he always does such...they on the deluxe?

There are demos, including, I believe, one song that didn't make the cut to being recorded by the band.

[JKL2000]

Subscribing so I can read it when I have more time.

I'm going to read the rest once I've listened to the album.

But it sounds from what John says like Steven has been learning from Steve Hogarth. IMO.

[jkelman]

I'm going to read the rest once I've listened to the album.

But it sounds from what John says like Steven has been learning from Steve Hogarth. IMO.

I don't know where you get to that if you've read the interview. More like he's learned from the remix work he does....and a remarkably broad set of musical interests.

[Haruspex Carnage]

I don't know where you get to that if you've read the interview. More like he's learned from the remix work he does....and a remarkably broad set of musical interests.

Maybe the whole feeling more comfortable as a singer and doing his own shows as a band leader bit "modeled" after H who went on the road with his own band in the last two years at some point? (my guess).

[Spiral]

Maybe it was: understated approach to singing ... far more masterful at implying much with but the subtlest of gestures. That certainly sounds like someone who's taken some good cues from H, consciously or not.

[jkelman]

Maybe it was: understated approach to singing ... far more masterful at implying much with but the subtlest of gestures. That certainly sounds like someone who's taken some good cues from H, consciously or not.

Well, if you read the interview he talks a lot about the difference, in PT, of being a guitarist who sang and his solo career, where he's now (amongst other things) a singer who plays some guitar. As a guitarist myself, I understand exactly what that means and hope I was able to get it across, along with what he says as well.

I think that what I wrote about how he is singing really doesn't have anything to do with Hogarth but, again the interview clarifies, how three albums and two major tours have given him more confidence as a singer and allowed him to grow as a singer in ways that he did/could not in PT.

Sorry, but while we didn't discuss anything remotely approaching Marillion and Hogarth, every sense I got was that his raised game as a singer (and for me, I really hear it - feel it, in fact, with those subtle gestures; the whole final vocal, a letter to her brother, really is heartbreaking (a) because of the words he's written and (b) because of tiny gestures, like a brief falsetto here, a touch of vibrato there).

I suppose it's all conjecture, so you could be right, but I'm just saying that we spoke at some length about his singing, and since he's certainly not averse to talking about the influence of others in his work, it's not insignificant that Hogarth's name never came up...but that there were simply other reasons. Singers can evolve along parallel paths, as can any instrumentalist, without necessarily coming from another specific source, and I how we discussed how he's raised his game as a singer - and, more importantly, why - simply makes clear and simple sense that I could also relate to personally, making it all the more reasonable to me.

Hope this helps clarify.

[jkelman]

Maybe the whole feeling more comfortable as a singer and doing his own shows as a band leader bit "modeled" after H who went on the road with his own band in the last two years at some point? (my guess).

Well, yes, you could draw a conclusion such as this, but I don't think, from either interview I've done with Steven - or any other offline emails we've had in the past few years - that this is the case, because we've talked about a lot of groups and a lot of specific people who are "swimming" in his head...but neither Marillion nor Hogarth solo have ever come up in any discussions we've had, so while I suppose the best thing to do would be to ask him, he's pretty busy getting ready to launch the tour so I think I'll save it for a later date.

All I can say is what i used to tell other writers when I was AAJ's managing editor, is to try and avoid drawing conclusions that have no actual basis in fact. Every conclusion I've drawn has come as a result of conversations with Wilson, so I feel pretty confident about my stand. It's easy to draw lines that don't exist - and understandable too. But I think it's something that, while worth being part of discussion like this, is something also to be a little cautious about.

[Spiral]

Hope this helps clarify.

Well, I didn't think there was any confusion--I was just speculating why Mr. JKL above might have been noticing some similarities between Steve and Steve, regardless of whether the AAJ stuff had touched on any direct connection between the two. I just read his comment as "hey, this is one thing this performance reminds me of." But at the same time your further explanations are generally as interesting as the articles themselves, so I'm not complaining about that either. It's all good stuff. Thanks for both.

[jkelman]

Well, I didn't think there was any confusion--I was just speculating why Mr. JKL above might have been noticing some similarities between Steve and Steve, regardless of whether the AAJ stuff had touched on any direct connection between the two. I just read his comment as "hey, this is one thing this performance reminds me of." But at the same time your further explanations are generally as interesting as the articles themselves, so I'm not complaining about that either. It's all good stuff. Thanks for both.

I didn't want to come off as either critical of anyone here making those comments - like I said, I can understand why they might - nor do I ever want to come off as sounding on a high horse because I'm lucky enough to be able to get the time to explore things with artists whose work I admire.

I continue to think of myself as one lucky guy, and not just for the above; the support of folks at PE who read my writing, and who provide great feedback is always tremendously appreciated.

Cheers!
John