It’s been a tumultuous few years for Steven Wilson’s fanbase. Following the polarising ‘THE FUTURE BITES’ in 2021— a record that saw him straying further from his roots than ever before in favour of a more ‘commercial’ synth pop sound— and the cancellation of his worldwide tour due to the pandemic, Wilson’s place at the forefront of modern progressive rock was in greater jeopardy than ever. 2023’s ‘The Harmony Codex’ sought to mend some of that damage, but it’s 2025 that sees the guitarist reviving his classic style. In many ways, new record ‘The Overview’ is a triumphant return, full of the usual soaring solos and lengthy compositions fans have been sorely missing these last few years: it must be said, though, that the grand ambitions of ‘The Overview’ are often let down by its finer details, even if things work out in Wilson’s favour by the end.

Just as the record splits itself in half, it feels appropriate to discuss its two multi-phase tracks in turn— the quality of ‘The Overview’ switches on a dime, and Wilson isn’t leading with his strongest material in ‘Objects Outlive Us.’ The track begins exactly as advertised, as the floating falsetto vocals and existential lyrical themes on ’No Monkey’s Paw’ set the album up to be a sweeping, adventurous journey through spacial soundscapes— given Wilson’s love for ambient music, we’re thrilled to see him tackling the genre at long last. How disappointing it is, then, to see ‘The Buddha of the Modern Age’ crash the party before it even begins, hammering away at increasingly surreal and disjointed vocal chanting that grows tiresome remarkably fast: right from the off, it becomes clear that Wilson’s focus seems unfortunately split between delivering the cosmic wonder he’s so clearly invested in and delivering those fan-appeasing prog rock passages.

It’s not until the song finally does settle into an acoustic guitar groove that ‘Objects Outlive Us’ finally begins to warm up to its own sound. Wilson’s production is as crystal clear as ever, layering sparse keyboard chords and warbling synths against his own refined lead vocals— though this may not be his most characterful or innovative production to date, it nonetheless embodies its spacial aesthetic extremely well, keeping each arrangement feeling as weightless and flowing as possible. The song is even one of Wilson’s more lyrically thoughtful cuts, contrasting the mundanity with everyday life with the sheer scale and wonder of the universe. These lyrics, for instance, manage to tie a sweet anecdote and a poignant message about mortality together seamlessly:

“And now in her old wedding bed

A lady will dream that her husband is dead

Of course he's alive, he'll be home around five

Still, silence arrives, when a nebula dives

Into our Milky Way”

In truth, ‘Objects Outlive Us’ houses a fair few strong ideas. Its heaviest passage, coming towards the middle of ‘Meanwhile,’ is full of the unconventional phrasing and creative note choices that Wilson’s fans have come to expect from him— by contrast, the jazz-fusion explosion and following melancholic guitar solo that round out the track feel like a new excursion, committing themselves completely to the cosmic aesthetic of the album. This is the return to progressive rock fans have been waiting for, even if it may not be quite as explosive as one might’ve hoped.

When all is said and done though, the sheer number of disconnected ideas crammed together through this 23-minute odyssey ends up leaving ‘Objects Outlive Us’ without identity. Despite the length, much of Wilson’s classic output tended to feel fairly grounded and conceptual, even when the boat was being pushed out— take ‘Luminol’ as a prime example, which transitions between multiple genres without growing tiresome or leaving the listener behind. ‘Objects Outlive Us’ lacks the vision to stand on the same level, giving the impression that Wilson’s heart may not have been in these melodramatic progressive rock passages— ultimately, the song feels hindered by the album’s two-track structure, and might’ve been better served as four or five shorter cuts. Have no fear though: the bold movements that ‘Objects Outlive Us’ takes in its final minutes set up the second half of the album to be a much stronger, more focused experience.

Just as the album’s themes shift from everyday human experiences to grander cosmic events, ‘The Overview’ finally allows itself to soar— needless to say, the second half of the album is a dramatic upswing in quality. Wilson finally manages to commit himself to the spacial atmosphere here, taking the focus away from the bright guitars and vocals: ‘Perspective’ is purely an ambient work, combining reverb-heavy drums against a highly artificial sound palate in a manner befitting of the song’s central themes of scale and human insignificance. This pulled-back feeling, almost like the listener is hearing the record through glass, persists throughout the entire experience, only adding to its wondrous nature— the closing keyboard suite on ‘Permanence’ feels like floating, capturing space to an absolute tee.

Even when Wilson begins to reintroduce elements of progressive rock back into the track, he does with a grace and confidence we’ve not seen from him in years: in a comparison that would probably touch the artist himself, ‘The Overview’ truly feels like an evolution of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity,’ combining rock and psychedelia into an absolute odyssey of a song. ‘A Beautiful Infinity/Borrowed Atoms’ houses some of the best writing on the entire project, introducing a welcome element of brightness into an otherwise imposing composition— the satisfying guitar tone and powerful crescendo on the line “there’s no reason for any of this: just a beautiful infinity” has us genuinely excited in a way we didn't think Wilson capable of at this stage in his career. Though the song isn’t immune to the progressive wanderings and moments of unclear inspiration that plague ‘Objects Outlive Us,’ it overall feels surprisingly cohesive, and represents a new frontier for the artist’s work.

In a bizarre twist of nomenclature, this new release often misses the trees for the forest— moment to moment, the album can struggle to integrate its numerous ideas into a single, unified vision, leaving the record feeling a little too scattershot at times. When ‘The Overview’ fully commits to its space-themed identity, though, Wilson’s latest work really is able to soar, delivering some of the most lush soundscapes we’re likely to hear all year. This really is a return to form for the poster child of modern progressive rock: we can only hope that his 9th album manages to find its identity much earlier in its runtime.