Steven Wilson, the founder and frontman of the band Porcupine Tree, steps out on his own for the solo record Insurgentes. I’ve been listening to this album over and over since it arrived in the mail and have been trying to find reasons not to call it my favorite album since last year’s Marillion masterpiece, Happiness Is The Road. I’m certainly not finding any. The thing about Steven Wilson is that he knows how to flawlessly assemble a song; exactly the right instruments are used, the vocals show up unerringly at the right moment and each song is exactly as long as it needs to be. These are all reasons why he’s such a fantastic producer of other musicians’ music and a genius at putting together his own audio wonders.
Each of the ten tracks on Insurgentes are like little jewels waiting to be unearthed and the more you scrutinize them, the more interesting facets you find. This isn’t an album to idly listen to. You can try to relegate it to ambient background noise, but something is bound to grab your attention and pull you in, almost subliminally. The style runs the gamut from ethereal transcendence to razor-sharp screaming guitar. And I’m going to claim the title track as probably the most beautiful song ever written. There are musical moments here that David Sylvian and Trent Reznor would be lucky to master.
That’s not to say Wilson accomplishes everything completely on his own. Porcupine Tree bandmate Gavin Harrison proves undeniably why he is an under appreciated drummer, the great Tony Levin lends his distinctive bass sound to a couple of tracks and Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess is present here and there. Extra guitars are provided by Mike Outram, Dirk Serries and Sand Snowman, while Theo Travis provides masterful woodwinds on two tracks. Japanese virtuoso Michiyo Yagi provides the gorgeous koto sounds. All in all, the sound is rich, full and three dimensional. Even in the car or on cheap headphones each song sounds like it is completely enveloping you. So, yeah, I’m going to say this may be the best album of the last five years. Get it now.
