GRACE FOR DROWNING

And so it's here, arguably the most anticipated album for 2011 (certainly the one most reviewed) and, as it is with Steven Wilson, album bringing big fan-base with it. The funny thing is that the more positive reviews were piling for this album, the less I was anticipating it.

However, it doesn't matter much, because the album was completely different than I was expecting it to be. There is still SW signature sound, something present on all albums he was present for last 10 years (possibly more), even though Sectarian quite shocked and confused me a bit, but after this, we are getting the usual mix of symphonic, or atmospheric music dominated by Wilson's signature vocals.

I was trying to make a review few times, but always failed. This time ? I'll just keep it this short. What more is there to say, fans will be pleased, haters will still hate (indeed, SW has this polarizing effect on people) and Steven will keep on doing music that slightly progresses more, but what's more important is that it is consistent (well not if you compare his first projects to his last, but a few following releases are of very similar sounds, talking about Porcupine Tree here). The problem I have with this album is its length. For these 82 minutes, there have to be fillers (and not a few of them), together with certain parts that are uninteresting to me, which are counterweighted by moments of clarity and perfection, I have to give - you know, poor man's rating.