Album Review: Hand.Cannot.Erase. by Steven Wilson

Joyce Vincent, a vibrant young woman, living in London, who had friends and a career, was found dead in her flat in 2006. She’d been lying there undiscovered since 2003. Monthly rent and bills were automatically withdrawn from her account, while her family reportedly thought she’d moved away. This is the emotional fuel for Steven Wilson’s fourth studio album, ruminating on the isolation of city life.

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As modern progressive rock’s undisputed figurehead and chief workaholic, Steven Wilson has little to prove, and yet his fourth solo album is anything but a cosy reassertion of values. In contrast to his much-lauded Victorian ghost-stories set The Raven that Refused to Sing from 2013, Hand. Cannot. Erase.

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In January of 2006, the remains of Joyce Carol Vincent, aged 38, were discovered in her London flat. She died in her apartment in late 2003, surrounded by undelivered Christmas presents. She was described as outgoing, attractive, and ambitious by neighbors, friends, and family, but somehow wasn't missed. This chilling story made headlines in Great Britain, and the mysterious person behind it moved Steven Wilson to create this fictional concept album (small "c").

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Brice Ezell: Watching Steven Wilson nail the encore of his 2013 “homecoming show” at London’s Royal Albert Hall, it was hard to shake the feeling that tour and the album it was promoting, The Raven that Refused to Sing (and other stories), represented a special culmination of all he had worked toward at that point. Despite evading the “prog” label during his many years as the frontman of Porcupine Tree, The Raven remains to this day his proggiest release yet. (During the Royal Albert Hall concert, he refers to prog as “the p-word”.) Deeply indebted to the sound of the ‘70’s progressive rock that Wilson has long revered (King Crimson, Genesis, and Yes), the album captures Wilson’s most intricate songwriting to date.

Full Review >>

Brice Ezell: Watching Steven Wilson nail the encore of his 2013 “homecoming show” at London’s Royal Albert Hall, it was hard to shake the feeling that tour and the album it was promoting, The Raven that Refused to Sing (and other stories), represented a special culmination of all he had worked toward at that point. Despite evading the “prog” label during his many years as the frontman of Porcupine Tree, The Raven remains to this day his proggiest release yet. (During the Royal Albert Hall concert, he refers to prog as “the p-word”.) Deeply indebted to the sound of the ‘70’s progressive rock that Wilson has long revered (King Crimson, Genesis, and Yes), the album captures Wilson’s most intricate songwriting to date.

Full Review >>