Steven Wilson — THE FUTURE BITES — Album Review
Alternative | Rock | Electronic
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
It was during my days at university, where I was exploring a lot of progressive rock music to support the dissertation I had been writing at the time, where I stumbled across a band known as Porcupine Tree, and their 2002 album In Absentia, which to this day, stands as quite possibly one of the most underrated albums in my opinion.
That being said however, that album will be 20 years old next year. And while Porcupine Tree had a number of other phenomenal tracks outside of their 2002 masterpiece, they decided to disband in 2010.
So with that being said, guitarist, vocalist, and founder of Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, did what most lead singers of a past band would’ve done, and decided to go solo.
I was made aware of Wilson’s solo career upon discovering his 2017 album To The Bone. And despite being his fifth solo album, tracks that can be found on it, such as “The Same Asylum As Before” for instance, still displayed a lingering sense of that Porcupine Tree aesthetic that I had come to know. To The Bone, ultimately became one of those albums that I enjoyed through my few skim-overs, but really nothing more than that.
Fast forward to 2021, a year where I find myself being way more open and eclectic towards towards my addiction for new music, and Steven Wilson offers up his next studio album, THE FUTURE BITES.
As shown through some of the supporting media for this project, THE FUTURE BITES is a concept album at heart, set in an ideological dystopia, where society is on the brink of extinction, whilst a corporate giant, that shares the album’s name, has control over everything.
And that is just about the strongest bit of praise I have to say about this album; the compelling narrative it has, which draws an exaggerated reflection of the class division, and the extremities between the elite, and the rest of us.
I just found it to be a bit of a shame, that such an artful narrative, was conveyed in such an on-the-nose fashion. Even on some Porcupine Tree songs, the songwriting felt like it was a bit hit-or-miss, but it felt further exemplified on THE FUTURE BITES.
One thing that initially excited me about this album, was the idea that Steen Wilson clearly wanted to switch his sound up a little, or in comparison with To The Bone at least. But I felt that Wilson did go a bit overboard with the amount of styles he wanted to explore. And there are even some cases where Wilson took such a formulaic approach to making songs in these styles, that he ultimately failed to implement his own personality into some of the tracks. With one of the most glaring examples of this being the track “SELF”, some of them just come off as extremely generic representatives of a given genre.
Having said that, however, the few gems that can be found on this album were both enjoyable and memorable. I particularly loved the increasingly gorgeous and ambient sound of “COUNT OF UNEASE”, but just wished that I didn’t have to wait for the album’s final leg to hear it.
I felt like THE FUTURE BITES had the potential to be a phenomenal piece, but what ultimately let it down was the lack of narrowing things down, and really letting the overall concept of the album truly ripen beyond the base narrative alone. But I hope to see Steven Wilson finally champion a style or aesthetic that distances him further from his former band.
Favourite Tracks: EMINENT SLEAZE | FOLLOWER | COUNT OF UNEASE
Least Favourite Tracks: SELF
Steven Wilson Productions | Caroline International
Enjoyment: 5/10 | Memorability: 6/10 | Atmosphere: 7/10
Uniqueness: 6/10 | Satisfaction: 3/10 | Narrative: 8/10
