Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex

[aith01]

Yes, what is the point of making it so tricky that it does not groove? But sure, I guess that is what he was after.

Who says it has to "groove"?

I find it interesting how much Steven Wilson seems to have fallen out of favor here. The amount of nitpicking with these two new tracks, and even some of the more positive comments about "Impossible Tightrope" are tempered with skepticism about whether it will have any "staying power". Like folks are hesitant to let a compliment stand without some kind of qualifier.

Maybe it's because some fans feel burned that Wilson "abandoned the prog" on his last few albums. Maybe it's because he expressed opinions in interviews that annoyed some fans. Maybe it's because he never "swallowed his pride" and invited Colin back into PT.

Here he releases arguably the most "proggy" sounding thing he's done in years, but some folks pick it apart for being "tricky", "overplayed", etc. While also picking apart "Economies of Scale" for being too boring, simple, an impersonation of Thom Yorke, etc. It really seems like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

I don't know what the reason is at the core of the matter, but it's interesting to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh well! I like these new songs and am curious to hear the final product. I've enjoyed most of his solo albums more than the latter-day Porcupine Tree stuff.

[Drake]

Who says it has to "groove"?



I find it interesting how much Steven Wilson seems to have fallen out of favor here. The amount of nitpicking with these two new tracks, and even some of the more positive comments about "Impossible Tightrope" are tempered with skepticism about whether it will have any "staying power". Like folks are hesitant to let a compliment stand without some kind of qualifier.

Maybe it's because some fans feel burned that Wilson "abandoned the prog" on his last few albums. Maybe it's because he expressed opinions in interviews that annoyed some fans. Maybe it's because he never "swallowed his pride" and invited Colin back into PT.

Here he releases arguably the most "proggy" sounding thing he's done in years, but some folks pick it apart for being "tricky", "overplayed", etc. While also picking apart "Economies of Scale" for being too boring, simple, an impersonation of Thom Yorke, etc. It really seems like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

I don't know what the reason is at the core of the matter, but it's interesting to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh well! I like these new songs and am curious to hear the final product. I've enjoyed most of his solo albums more than the latter-day Porcupine Tree stuff.

Noone says it has to groove. Why does it have to be as weird as possible?

Rhetorical question.

Just stating my opinion. Like everybody else here. I find the first track interesting, by the way. Love Insurgentes and at the same time the breathtaking prog on Raven. Find To the Bone to be his least good effort.

Just me and my opinion. Hilarious? Sure, whatever.

[aith01]

Noone says it has to groove. Why does it have to be as weird as possible?

Rhetorical question.

Just stating my opinion. Like everybody else here. I find the first track interesting, by the way. Love Insurgentes and at the same time the breathtaking prog on Raven. Find To the Bone to be his least good effort.

Just me and my opinion. Hilarious? Sure, whatever.

To say the drum parts in a prog jazz-influenced song are overplayed, as a criticism? Yeah, I find that funny and ironic. YMMV.

[Kcrimso]

Noone says it has to groove. Why does it have to be as weird as possible?

Rhetorical question.

Just stating my opinion. Like everybody else here. I find the first track interesting, by the way. Love Insurgentes and at the same time the breathtaking prog on Raven. Find To the Bone to be his least good effort.

Just me and my opinion. Hilarious? Sure, whatever.

I have super arrogant aith01 on ignore but sadly I see his posts when quoted. Nothing has changed.

[Drake]

To say the drum parts in a prog jazz-influenced song are overplayed, as a criticism? Yeah, I find that funny and ironic. YMMV.

You must be critizising the part where the drums are straight-forward a lot, then. It’s jazz-influenced prog, after all.

[Steve983]

I have super arrogant aith01 on ignore but sadly I see his posts when quoted. Nothing has changed.

Likewise

[aith01]

You must be critizising the part where the drums are straight-forward a lot, then. It’s jazz-influenced prog, after all.

No I don’t mind the straightforward parts either. I think the song has good dynamics.

[aith01]

You know what, I think I'm done with PE. At least for a while.

Carry on.

[Jerjo]

Here's the full animated video, Good to see Theo Travis and Niko Tsonev appearing on this.

It works for me - give me more like that

[3LockBox]

I myself have eschewed listening to any camples until I hear the entire album. I think it was a mistake, for me (just me, you pendantiacs out there) to hear material months in advance as singles when the artist in question has always been more of an album artist. I can imagine there were, ar any point in time, songs on a PT or Wilson project that wouldn't grab me as a single but in the context of an album it might be indispensable to the experience.

[Zeph]

Same here. I always listen to entire albums and don’t think I would be doing myself any favors by listening to these individual tracks out of context.

[Interstellar]

Like other people here I refrain from listening to individual tracks in this case.
My favorite SW solo album is HCE and I love the way it works as a whole, combining pop songs, rock songs, proggy instrumentals, moody acoustic pieces.
I'm curious to see if the new album will achieve that kind of artistic success. I listened to the first song once and wasn't impressed, but it may work in context.

[Dave (in MA)]

Good to see Theo Travis and Niko Tsonev appearing on this.

And David Kollar, from KoMaRa, the side project that Pat Mastelotto was part of.

[Steve983]

A new long interview with SW

[Steve983]

Rock Bottom with Ninet

[bondegezou]

I don't know what the reason is at the core of the matter, but it's interesting to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh well! I like these new songs and am curious to hear the final product. I've enjoyed most of his solo albums more than the latter-day Porcupine Tree stuff.

I think most people most of the time say they like something because they liked it, and say they don't like something because they didn't like it.

[Steve983]

I think most people most of the time say they like something because they liked it, and say they don't like something because they didn't like it.

Yes indeed, and some people like to constantly nit pick other peoples opinions.

[Steve983]

Here we are, SW gets tied up with Ninet - Floyd meets Kate Bush?

[bondegezou]

Here we are, SW gets tied up with Ninet - Floyd meets Kate Bush?

I enjoyed that... although it kind of stops, maybe going into the next piece on the album?

[JJ88]

I think most people most of the time say they like something because they liked it, and say they don't like something because they didn't like it.

Simple as that. The faux-outrage schtick gets really tedious. As The Stones had it, it's only rock 'n' roll.

[LeFrog]

I might change my mind when I hear the whole thing but at this point I don't think I've ever been so underwhelmed by camples from a SW album.

With every new album of his, I haven't always connected with the songs on first listen but I've always been taken off guard and challenged by the change of direction from the previous one. I even liked The Future Bites for defying my expectations.

Here, I feel that every song is a retread of something he's done before: Economies of Scale sounds like a Future Bites outtake, Impossible Tightrope sounds like a less inspired version of the jazzy workouts from Raven and parts of Hand Cannot Erase. As for this last one, it's Routine/Pariah all over again.

It's the first time that I get such a "I've heard this all before" feeling with SW, when it's usually "how does he manage to surprise me again". The only other time might have been The Incident, which also sounded like a retread of everything PT had done before at that point, and he later dismissed that album and admitted to having written it on complete autopilot.

It's way too early to write off the album, but I really didn't exepect to feel this way, especially with an album that is hyped as being genre-defying and innovative.

[bondegezou]

Simple as that. The faux-outrage schtick gets really tedious. As The Stones had it, it's only rock 'n' roll.

Well, I wouldn't agree with the last bit. Bill Shankly famously said of football (i.e., soccer), "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Likewise, I am happy to take rock 'n' roll very seriously, but I think we should start by assuming the sincerity of people's likes and dislikes (while that doesn't mean those likes and dislikes are necessarily objective or without context).

[profusion]

I haven't been blown away by the three released songs, but I also have to say that I'll need some time with the entire album as a whole to really digest it.

[Drake]

I might change my mind when I hear the whole thing but at this point I don't think I've ever been so underwhelmed by camples from a SW album.

With every new album of his, I haven't always connected with the songs on first listen but I've always been taken off guard and challenged by the change of direction from the previous one. I even liked The Future Bites for defying my expectations.

Here, I feel that every song is a retread of something he's done before: Economies of Scale sounds like a Future Bites outtake, Impossible Tightrope sounds like a less inspired version of the jazzy workouts from Raven and parts of Hand Cannot Erase. As for this last one, it's Routine/Pariah all over again.

It's the first time that I get such a "I've heard this all before" feeling with SW, when it's usually "how does he manage to surprise me again". The only other time might have been The Incident, which also sounded like a retread of everything PT had done before at that point, and he later dismissed that album and admitted to having written it on complete autopilot.

It's way too early to write off the album, but I really didn't exepect to feel this way, especially with an album that is hyped as being genre-defying and innovative.

This!

[Frumious B]

Here we are, SW gets tied up with Ninet - Floyd meets Kate Bush?

I really liked Ninet Tayeb on “Pariah” which seemed like Wilson’s tribute to “Don’t Give Up” with Tayeb playing Kate Bush to Wilson’s Peter Gabriel. However, I don’t think she sounds particularly good on this song where it’s like she’s doing this husky voice Kim Carnes thing in the verses that might work if you have Bette Davis eyes, but not so well on a track that is an early Porcupine Tree style Pink Floyd pastiche complete with a very Gilmour guitar solo.