“The Overview”, stylized as TH5 OV5RV95W, is the eighth studio album by English musician Steven Wilson, also known for his work with Porcupine Tree. It marks a return to progressive rock, featuring just two tracks, each around 20 minutes long. It’s also a conceptual album, inspired by the “overview effect,” the cognitive shift astronauts experience when seeing Earth from space.
Wilson describes it like this: “My eighth solo album, The Overview, is a 42-minute conceptual epic with two tracks, taking the listener on a Kubrickian journey into the darkness of outer space, revealing humanity as it truly is: tiny, insignificant, overshadowed by cosmic distances spanning billions of years.”
Wilson is renowned as a progressive rock musician, but his recent solo work has leaned toward pop and electronic music, so for many fans, this long-awaited return to his roots is a welcome treat.
Musically, The Overview is built on traditional rock instruments, giving it a deeply organic feel. However, the tracks also make significant use of synthesizers layered over the rock foundation, enhancing the spacey atmosphere.
While there’s a clear influence from the classic era of progressive rock and 1970s electronic music (especially Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream), the album’s production is distinctly modern. Wilson, an avid fan of digital production, delivers a masterclass in music production. The instruments sound crystal-clear and vibrant, everything perfectly in place.
The first of the two tracks, “Objects Outlive Us”, opens with a falsetto and minimalist musical passages that gradually evolve into more intense sections, reminiscent of Wilson’s most progressive and complex albums, “The Raven That Refused to Sing” and “Hand. Cannot. Erase”. Pink Floyd influences shine through everywhere.
The lyrics are particularly intriguing, blending everyday situations, like going to the bank or washing a car, with galactic phenomena.
There are several such moments throughout the song, descriptions of utterly mundane events suddenly tied to cosmic occurrences far grander and more significant in the vast Universe. This reminds us how many people tend to see their lives and personal experiences as profoundly important, but when juxtaposed with the immense events unfolding in the Universe, on a scale and timeline we can’t comprehend, it reveals just how tiny and utterly insignificant we truly are. It’s something worth keeping in mind.
Excerpt of the 23 minutes track:
The second track, “The Overview”, leans more heavily into electronic music, with synthesizers crafting a wide, somewhat hypnotic atmosphere. It feels like a journey through space, with sounds stacking up gradually. There’s an echo of bands like Tangerine Dream, but Wilson adds his modern touch: everything sounds sharp and well-defined. The lyrics are sparse, but when they appear, they depict Earth as a fragile speck in the void. It reinforces the album’s core idea: looking at our world from the outside makes you realize how small we are.
In conclusion, “The Overview” brings Wilson back to progressive rock with gusto, armed with a thought-provoking concept and stellar musical production. Its two tracks take listeners on a journey blending the cosmic with the everyday, inviting them to ponder our place in the universe. It’s not perfect, some parts drag a bit, but for Wilson’s followers or fans of progressive rock, it’s an album well worth paying attention to. And, well, even if we’re just a speck in the cosmos, we can still create some pretty compelling music.
