I've
been playing virtually nothing but Steven Wilson's new album Hand. Cannot. Erase. and associated
tracks for the past couple of weeks.
The album comes in a bewildering array of formats, all of which contain different tracks - demos, out-takes, instrumental versions, remixes - all to be found across the regular CD, deluxe CD/DVD, Blu-Ray, super deluxe book edition etc... Whatever
versions you want however, this is an album that is well worth getting hold of.
The
album itself is very loosely based on the true story of a woman who gradually
withdrew from the world, despite living and working in London. She lost contact
with her family and her friends and then seemed to vanish. People assumed she'd
just moved away, but due to a combination of benefits continuing to be paid in
and rent continuing to be paid out, no-one realised that she'd died in her flat,
with the TV still on and Christmas presents for her brother's kids still half
wrapped. No one seemed to miss her and her body wasn't discovered for over two
years!
The
songs on Hand.Cannot.Erase. don't
actually tell the story of this woman, but some are clearly inspired by the way
she withdrew from contact with the world. The best place to hide is in the
busiest city. No-one will notice you if you don't want to be noticed. So we get
songs of regret, of sad childhoods, of lonely people - but surprisingly this is
in no way a miserable album. There's an excitement and a buzz about it, lots of
electronic textures that set it apart from the retro prog of Wilson's previous
album, and above all some of the songs are solidly, joyfully commercial
sounding.
The title song mixes the catchy, snappy sound of one of Wilson's
other bands - Blackfield - with the punchy anthemic rock of bands like Manic
Street Preachers - and it's superb. It's immediately followed by the trip-hoppy
sound of "Perfect Life" as the female protagonist of this album
reflects on an idyllic part of her childhood when her parents adopted another
girl who introduced her to Dead Can Dance, Felt and This Mortal Coil - although
it's obviously not actually taken from Steven Wilson's own life there's clearly
a strong autobiographical strain running through this.
There
are longer pieces, twisting and werning their way through various Prog
influences. "3 Years Older" starts off with Pete Townshend
"Substitute" like chords, but mutates into something like late 70s
Rush before veering off at another tangent altogether. The demo version of this
song even uses part of the wonderful No-Man song "Truenorth" at one
point. But it would be entirely wrong to say that these songs merely nick stuff
from their influences. The sources are clear at times but Wilson does so much
with this inspiration that every song soars and changes into something new and
fresh and exciting and genuinely thrilling. The use of female vocals on a
couple of tracks adds considerable depth. This is not just prog rock - despite
what the reviews might say - there's so much more to Steven Wilson than
that.
The
final track, "Happy Returns", is arguably the best. The lyrics may
seem inocuous on first listen, merely a letter to an estranged brother, but the
words are deceptive and there's a heartbreaking sadness in this song that's
deliberately left unresolved in the final line "I'll finish this
tomorrow" which precedes some truly stunning and highly emotional guitar
work. The coda to this is titled "Ascendent Here On…" which might
point to the lonely death of the woman, but the website that accompanies the
album also hints at something else, something rather surprising after the very
humdrum and very human story that has gone before. The diary on the website details
the fictional life of this woman and about halfway through there are the first
oblique mentions of 'visitors'. My understanding of this was that the woman was
slipping in paranoia and perhaps schizophrenia and that her mind was wandering
due to her self imposed isolation. But the final pictures on the site,
published the day the album was released, show what seem to be glowing lights
in the sky, perhaps UFOs, accompanied by the words Ascendent Here On… Wilson
has said in a couple of interviews that the story might not actually be exactly
what it seems and when one interviewer suggested a sci-fi element to the loose
story Wilson said something like 'perhaps…' so who knows? It’s deliberately
vague and open to all sorts of interpretations.
What
remains certain however is that the album is a real masterpeice of modern rock and the
bonus tracks add much to this. The demos are sufficiently different to be very
worthwhile hearing, with two tracks that never made it to the album itself (one
of which is just gorgeous). The instrumental versions of the songs are more
than just the pieces with the vocals removed. Quite differently mixed and with
alternative overdubs and instrumentation in places - again well worth hearing.
And finally a few alternate takes and a couple of radio edits for "Hand
Cannot Erase" and "Happy Returns" - is Wilson being a tad
optimistic expecting radio play? If there was any sense in the world then these
two songs, at the very least, ought to be on radio playlists. With all the
acclaim and publicity he's getting for this record then is it possible,
25 years into his career, that he could actually get noticed by the general
public? Stranger things have happened.
