THE RAVEN THAT REFUSED TO SING (AND OTHER STORIES)

Once more for Steven Wilson a masterpiece of prog rock! He maybe topped himself with this album.

The sound of the band is fantastic: classic prog instruments (hammond, mellotron, sax, flute, piano...), with the usual (and even more) quality of production of SW albums. The work with Alan Parson (as sound engineer) have produced exactly what was expected.

All of this would mean nothing if musicians were poor... but here even more than in previous works, every instrument is played by an excellent musician.

They serve classic prog compositions full of complexity and feeling where you can hear influences of King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and ELP. Remixing the best King Crimson's albums in the last years seems to have inspired SW, but he manage to keep enough distance he doesn't copy these master bands.

Another positive point for SW usual listeners: he manage to develop his music in a new direction: it's still rock but elements of jazz are getting more and more evident.

And last (but not least): the beautiful limited edition (sold out before the release date) contains (in addition to drawings, photos and lyrics) short ghosts novels by SW from which the lyrics are inspired... who's best?