To many fans of Porcupine Tree and early Steven Wilson, this album promised a return to prog after his forays into electronica and more pop-oriented material. And looking at the form, it certainly seems that way: only two tracks, both around the 20 minute mark, sounds proggy indeed. And the album is, undeniably, prog, but it is also very accessible despite its structure. Steven Wilson has never hidden his prog influences, be they Pink Floyd, Yes or other 70s bands associated with the prog movement, and in some ways, The Overview feels like a prog epic heartbreaker: the album he always dreamt of doing had he been active in the early 70s. And yet both the instrumentation and the soundscapes are very modern. Long story short, I love 50% of The Overview. Objects Outlive Us, the opening track, is a glorious 23mn voyage into space and back, with lots of clever compositional tricks, lots of texture, very different section to keep your attention alive. I've listened to it intensively since getting the album, and it's not getting old. It has strong Floyd influences, but they are well digested, well used, and don't sound derivative. The same cannot unfortunately be said of the title track, clocking at 18mn. After a very long and repetitive 4 1/2mn section of electronic beats and a female voice reciting astronomical numbers and star names, the song proper starts and... really feels like a Gilmour era floyd pastiche. Still, half an album that's really good is more than I get on most albums, so I'm a happy proggy camper.
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