Steven Wilson – Transience (2015)

I picked this up in HMV sale, not realising it was a compilation. I tend to avoid compilations on the basis that I generally plan on picking up all the original albums at some point, although some compilations quickly disabuse me of that idea.

This is annotated with an introduction to the more accessible side of Steven Wilson", which seems a reasonable suggestion.

This contains 14 tracks, all relatively short (4-6 minutes is short for prog) from the five albums released between 2008 (Insurgentes) and 2016 (4½).

Opening with the acoustic guitar picking of the single version of Transience, it's a calm, gentle piece with looming bass chords threatening, before diving back to Wilson's debut solo single Harmony Korine, possibly reminiscent of what Radiohead could sound like with a few guts and a less whiny singer. Postcard is Wilson plus piano, a bit easy and over-stringed for my tastes. He's joined by veteran Irish singer, Clodagh Simonds on the dreamy Significant Other, another gentle piece with a more upbeat ending, and Insurgentes is similarly quiet and bleak. The Pindrop is a little louder, and is graced by a lovely sax solo from Theo Travis, and a fine guitar solo, followed by the pleasant Happy Returns.

Deform To Form A Star is a lovely ballad, starting with just a keyboard accompaniment before getting the full prog treatment, followed by Happiness III, a solid rocker of a song. There's another quiet ballad in Thank You, then the more sinister Index, sounding absolutely fantastic. And so on towards the end of this compilation with the solid Hand Cannot Erase, the absolutely beautiful Lazarus (a Porcupine Tree single), and final song Drive Home, a long, slow, relaxing conclusion (with a superb guitar solo) to this compilation.

The compilation does what it says on the tin, although it's possibly the less accessible side of Wilson I enjoy more. Nevertheless, it's a really enjoyable hour's listen, showing a variety of styles and sounds from a versatile musician.

Link to album tracks

4* - a great compilation, and a decent starting point to Wilson's work.