Review: Steven Wilson – Grace For Drowning (2011)

Grace For Drowning is Steven Wilson’s second solo album.

In a way, it’s a bit funny to talk about Grace For Drowning as Steven Wilson’s (b. 1967) second solo album, because Wilson, who has had a long career in progressive music, has worked on many different projects in the past, all on his own. Even his most famous band, Porcupine Tree, began as a solo project before becoming a proper band. However, it was not until 2008 that Wilson began a proper solo career under his own name with the album Insurgentes. The main role in Wilson’s career was finally taken by his solo albums in 2010 when he disbanded Porcupine Tree. Grace For Drowning is Wilson’s first solo album since Porcupine Tree.

Wilson’s first solo album Insurgentes drew influences from post-punk, shoegaze, noise and, of course, the progressive rock that has almost always been part of Wilson’s toolbox. Grace For Drowning, on the other hand, draws its influences explicitly from the progressive rock side and can even be said to be the most clearly ”classic prog” album that Steven Wilson had released at this stage of his career. Wilson’s next album, The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories), then took an even clearer direction.

With Grace For Drowning, on the other hand, Wilson brought clear jazz influences into his music for the first time. These influences, however, seemed to come more through the prog bands of the 70s. It seems that instead of making jazz albums, Wilson was digging progressive rock bands with a healthy dose of jazz mixed in with their prog. The influence of King Crimson’s earliest albums in particular is clear on Grace For Drowning. Which in itself is very understandable, as Wilson had remixed (quite successfully) Crimson’s Lizard (1970) and Islands (1971) just before making this album. The eerie atmosphere of Islands in particular creeps up at several points along Grace For Drowning.

Throughout his career, Steven Wilson has had a habit of making overlong albums. This time there is a lot of material. A total of 83 minutes and 12 tracks ranging in length from a couple of minutes to over 20 minutes. Wilson has tried to reduce the listening fatigue by dividing the album into two discs of about 40 minutes and the solution works quite well. Of course, the fact that the quality of the music remains quite high throughout also helps. The discs have even been given their own cryptic names. The first is called Deform to Form A Star and the second Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye. Typical of Wilson, the music on Grace For Drowning is, if not exactly dark, then at least consistently melancholic.

Grace For Drowning doesn’t really have a fixed band playing from song to song, but Wilson has chosen different musicians to play on the album on a song-by-song basis. Wind player Theo Travis plays a major role on the album and plays on almost every song. His expressive playing is one of the album’s best features. The bassist is either Nick Beggs, Tony Levin, Trey Gunn or Steven Wilson himself. Nic France and Pat Mastelotto from King Crimson do a great job on drums. Wilson himself plays most of the guitar and keyboard parts on the album, but Mike Outram, Markus Reuter and, on one track, old Genesis ace Steve Hackett also make guest appearances on guitar. Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater plays piano on three tracks (fortunately only piano as his synth sounds are often unbearable…).

Four tracks feature strings from the London Session Orchestra and three tracks feature choral vocals from Synergy Vocals. Both the choral and string arrangements are by Canterbury legend Dave Stewart (Hatfield And The North, National Health).

The fragmented group of musicians makes the album feel kind of ”project-like”, and the result would probably have been tighter if there had been a solid core group playing together in the same studio. The individual performances played remotely are great, but the joy of playing together is not achieved. This problem Wilson rectified nicely with his next album, The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories), for which he assembled a really tight band of his own.

Wilson successfully combines musical elements that suddenly sound disconnected on the album, such as on ”No Part Of Me” where real strings and sequenced rhythms create an interesting atmosphere and then the song explodes into a great jazz rock ensembe playing at the end.

In the 23-minute epic ”Raider II”. Wilson makes particularly effective use of dynamics, building long arcs and juxtaposing very quiet sections, and even silence, with heavier sections. In the loudest sections, the fans and Mellotron roar in a very King Crimson-like way. ”Like ’Index’, ’Raider II’ also deals with the serial killer theme and Wilson’s interest in the subject matter feels a little bit childish and even obnoxious. Despite this, ”Raider II” is an excellent song and the best thing Wilson has done in terms of really long songs since 2007’s ”Anesthetize”.

Steven Wilson has a reputation as something of a sound wizard, and Grace For Drowning sounds excellent for the most part. However, there are a few minor quibbles. The sounds are a bit sterile and too ”digital”. It seems that Wilson has tried to achieve maximum separation, which results in a lack of glue between the different instruments. While the individual instruments play beautifully for the most part, the whole is no more than the sum of its parts. Admittedly, despite these criticisms, Grace For Drowning sounds much better than the average rock album of the 21st century.

Grace For Drowning is one of Wilson’s finest albums in his extensive output, a perfect marriage of old-school jazz-influenced progressive rock and modern influences.

Best tracks: ’Secretarian’, ’Deform To Form A Star’, ’Raider II’, ’Index’, ’No Part Of Me’, ’Remainder The Black Dog’,

Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Tracks

Volume 1 – Deform To Form A Star

1. Grace for Drowning (2:06)
2. Sectarian (7:41)
3. Deform to Form a Star (7:51)
4. No Part of Me (5:45)
5. Postcard (4:29)
6. Raider Prelude (2:23)
7. Remainder the Black Dog (9:27)

Duration: 39:38

Volume 2 – Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye

8. Belle de Jour (2:59)
9. Index (4:49)
10. Track One (4:16)
11. Raider II (23:21)
12. Like Dust I Have Cleared from My Eye (8:01)

Duration: 43:24

Musicians:

Steven Wilson: vocals, keyboards, guitars, autoharp (8,10,12), bass guitar (2,5,8,11), piano (5-7,11,12) , gong (6) , glockenspiel (7), programming (10), organ harmonium (11,12), percussion (11) Markus Reuter: U8 touch guitar (4) Trey Gunn: Warr guitar & bass (4) Steve Hackett: guitars (7) Mike Outram: guitar (11,3. 4) Sand Snowman: acoustic guitar (11) Jordan Rudess: piano (1,3,11) Theo Travis: soprano sax (2,4,7,11,3. 4) , clarinets (3,7,11) , flute (7,11) Ben Castle: clarinet (2) Nick Beggs: Chapman stick (2,7,11), bass guitar (7,11) and bass solo (4) Tony Levin: bass guitar (3,12,3.2) Nic France: drums Pat Mastelotto: acoustic and electric drums (4,10,3. 2) London Session Orchestra: strings (4,5,8,10) Dave Stewart: choral arrangements and conducting (5,6,11) string arrangements and conducting (4,5,8,10) Synergy Vocals: choral (5,6,11) Dave Kerzner: sound design (11)