YMMV / Steven Wilson

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• Anvilicious: Considering his stance on Digital Piracy Is Evil, "Home Invasion" off Hand. Cannot. Erase. has the lyric, further enforcing his disgust to MP3s and downloading music in general:
  Download sex and download God.
  Download the funds to meet the cost.
  Download a dream home and a wife.
  Download the ocean and the sky.
• Archive Panic: He only has six official solo albums and eleven Porcupine Tree albums but lots of albums with other projects as well, as shown on the main page. And then add all the EPs, non-album singles, Live Albums, and so on that got left off. Wilson's discography comprises perhaps one of the most extreme musical examples of this trope over the past twenty-five years.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Blackfield is thought to have had one around the time of their third and fourth albums, which Wilson had less involvement in.
• Awesome Music: A lot of his music is considered this, both in Porcupine Tree and his solo work, but most people will say Insurgentes and Hand. Cannot. Erase.
  • Songs could also count like: "Harmony Korine", "The Raven That Refused to Sing", "3 Years Older", "Raider II", ect.
  • The vocal harmonies on "The Watchmaker" could bring the dead back to life.
  • "Luminol" is a fantastic example.
  • Regardless of your opinion on 2017's To the Bone, the title track is so chillingly awesome it's unreal. Nearly 7 minutes of prog-funk, and emphasis on funk. And that outro. THAT OUTRO. It can only be described as the gates of heaven opening.
  • Then there are the songs that didn't make it onto the albums. Case in point: "A Door Marked Summer".
  • The musicians in his band also get their own moments to shine:
    • Theo Travis' jagged saxophone solo on "No Part of Me".
    • Adam Holzman and Guthrie Govan's mind-blowing Moog and guitar solos on "Regret #9". In fact, that's pretty much the entire track.
  • And if all that wasn't enough, he's done music for adverts as well, including a glorious piece of Massive Attack-style trip hop.
• Broken Base: The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories). Not a lot of people call it Wilson's best work, and feel it's him glorifying classic 70s music, while others call it his best.
  • Storm Corrosion, the collaboration between Steven Wilson and Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt, also divided up each musician's respective fanbases. Some welcomed the duo's experimentation with classic progressive and psych-folk influences, while others were hoping for something a little more intense and metal-oriented.
  • Hand. Cannot. Erase., people call it Wilson's best while others call it a crappy pop album.
  • 2017's To the Bone is causing even more of a broken base due to its increased focus on pop compared to the previous album. While some respect Steven's decision to try out genres outside of the prog rock of old, others believe that this increased pop focus is a sign of Steven selling out to the mainstream in a manner similar to what he himself criticized in Sound of Muzak years ago. The video description to Permanating, one of the songs from the album, suggests that Steven expected this to happen.
• Creator Worship: Ho-yes. Wilson is heavily respected within the prog and metal community and by many people due to his collaborations and Genre Roulette experimentation. Being a Nice Guy helps too. This is also a huge unacceptable target when it comes to music criticism, although not as strong.
• Creepy Awesome: Especially his solo work.
• Epic Riff: A lot of songs can have this, but most notably has to be "Regret #9" and "Get All You Deserve".
  • "No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun" has one that starts off quietly and then gradually builds up until it reaches a crescendo in the middle of the song, then comes back with a vengeance at the very end.
  • The bass riff at the beginning of "Luminol" also counts.
  • There's also a great one that pops up three minutes or so into "Holy Drinker", then comes back for the climax of the song.
  • "Raider II"'s heavy section has a riff that is guaranteed to get your heart racing every time.
  • "Vermillioncore".
• Friendly Fandoms: Fans of his music also tend to be fans of other post-progressive artists on the Kscope label, such as Anathema, North Atlantic Oscillation, and The Pineapple Thief (who are often described as the Spiritual Successor to Porcupine Tree, especially since adding Gavin Harrison as a member).
• Funny Moments:
  • His Instagram. Just the fact you see him smiling and being silly at that makes it more hilarious. And then there's a picture of him wearing a Justin Bieber shirt while thumbs-upping the camera with a shit-eating grin on his face.
  • During a Q&A stream on Facebook, Steven showed off the infamously Narm Charm photo of Mikael Akerfedlt (which itself is a Call-Back to the Insurgentes documentary), which he has right on his music shelf. Seemed to be a nod at the fandom Ho Yay people have between him and Mikael.
  • Bassist and Chapman stick player Nick Beggs in general. This is a man whose YouTube content consists solely of videos of him playing pranks on cold callers.
  • Upon opening the limited edition The Future Bites box set, the owner is greeted with the following consumerist message.
    CONGRATULATIONS BY OPENING THIS LIMITED EDITION DELUXE BOX SET YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED IN HALVING ITS VALUE
  • Wilson’s autobiography reveals that the first song he invited Tim Bowness to sing on was “a gauche piece of social commentary” with the Narm-tastic title of “Give Me the Needle”. It was apparently so terrible that it had been discarded by the time Bowness arrived to record it.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In 2014, Alec Wildey, a leading member of the Steven Wilson Street Team and an accomplished poet, lost his battle with cancer at the age of 26. To honor his dream of having one of his poems turned into a song by two of his favorite musicians, Wilson collaborated with Mariusz Duda of Riverside to set the poem "The Old Peace" to music. They subsequently released the song as a downloadable single and donated the profits to cancer centers in both the US and the UK. The single ended up raising over $11,000 (US) in downloads.
  • Songwise, A few, especially considering Steven's shtick of sad and scary songs, most notably "Hand Cannot Erase", the title track off of Hand. Cannot. Erase..
  • His Instagram. People are so used to his ultra-depressing or scary musical output and have theorized that he has one tortured or messed up mind... but his Instagram proves otherwise; it's just so amazing to see him smiling, so clearly happy and even making silly faces in pictures and visibly loving what he does. And then there's a picture of him as a child with his father...
  • One photo features his elderly mother, with the description saying how she's still so young to him; everyone together now: Aaaaawwww!!
  • "Pariah". It's essentially "Don't Give Up" à la Steven Wilson.
    Don't you worry, don't worry about a thing
    'Cause nothing really dies
    Nothing really ends
• Moment of Awesome: On the To The Bone tour, he introduces "Permanating" by reminding the audience that some people were opposed to the idea of him writing a pop song, which begins a short speech in which he demolishes the idea of music snobbery, explains that he grew up with no concept of genre thanks to his parents' diverse musical tastes, and explains (quite rightly) that musicians should be able to explore their creative desires to the full and not pander to people's expectations. After which he encourages the audience to dance along to "Permanating" and have fun.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Clodagh Simmons' backing vocals on "Significant Other".
  • The entirety of "Regret #9".
  • The last minute of "Pariah".
  • "A Door Marked Summer" is made up of several of these.
• Never Live It Down: His hatred of MP3s and his obsession with Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition.
  • Even more is his dislike of having his music online, about which he has since changed his mind. Although it's safe to say that Wilson's position was tame compared to that of one of his heroes.
• Nightmare Fuel: Now with its own page.
• Narm: "I'm tired of Facebook" from "Pariah".
• Older Than They Think: Detractors of To the Bone and The Future Bites have accused Wilson of moving away from prog by incorporating electronic music and "pop" into his sound. Long-time fans have countered this by pointing out that while he has made invaluable contributions to the progressive rock genre, he doesn't actually identify as a "prog" musician himself (he feels that pigeonholing him into a specific genre doesn't accurately represent his full body of work), and that even early Porcupine Tree contains substantial electronic elements. Furthermore, his first major success was not with Porcupine Tree, but with No-Man — an art pop act.
• Spiritual Successor: Fans and music critics alike have noted that parts of To the Bone sound more like Porcupine Tree than anything Wilson has released since The Incident, with "The Same Asylum As Before" commonly cited as an example due to its similarity to "Prodigal".
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The track he recorded for an Observer advert in 1998 sounds a lot like Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps", which came out the same year. As it happens, this was the point: early versions of adverts would be set to an existing piece of music, and Wilson’s job was to create a composition that was similar to the original, but not so similar that it constituted plagiarism.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: The title track from Grace for Drowning: a delicate instrumental piece that features Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater on piano. Also from the same album is "Like Dust I Have Cleared from my Eye", which can be this when the focus isn't on the lyrics.
  • Hand. Cannot. Erase. has some of this, such as "First Regret" and arguably "Ascendant Here On...".
  • From the same album is "Transience", which can also serve as the calm before the storm that is "Ancestral".
  • "Permanating", without doubt the happiest song Wilson has ever written.
• Tear Jerker: The entire album of The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Songs) is this, being a collection of sad ghost stories.
  • "Drive Home" especially, about a man who feels his dead wife next to him in a car after she died in a car crash.
  • The title track of the album. Nuff said.
    ''Sing to me raven
    I miss her so much
  • Dibs on "The Pin Drop", being a song about a woman, who's in an unhappy relationship being killed by her significant other over a fucking pin drop. The lyrics don't help either...:
    I am tired of struggling
    And the rain is beating down on me
    I tried to be the way that he wanted me to be
    I did not hear the pin drop down
    I did not hear my heart
  • The plot of Hand. Cannot. Erase. is this: A woman disappears while isolating herself from society, all reflected in the songs. The worse part? It's inspired by a real story.
  • "Happy Returns" is devastating, pretty serving as a Hope Spot for the protagonist, only to then be hit with Ascendant Here On....
    • The lyrics are more depressing..:
  Cos the truth is, the years past like trains
  I wave but they don't slow down...don't slow down..

  • This one especially..:
  I feel I'm falling once again
  But now there's no one there to catch me..
  • ''We have got...we have got the perfect life...
    • The music video hits the context of the song hard too: Two sisters are seeing spending time together, but then the other covers her eyes with a blind and holds onto her hands until she leaves. When the other sister takes off her blind and see that she's gone, she goes looking for her and then breaks down crying, confused as to why she left.
    • The lyrics:
  But gradually, she passed into another distant part of my memory,
  until I could no longer remember her face, her voice, even her name.
  • "Routine". Wilson's manager actually said it was the most depressing song he had ever written. And the brilliant animated video that accompanies it in the live shows cranks that sadness up to eleven (see the example for The Woobie below).
  • A non-musical example: Wilson's discussion on child death in the Insurgentes film, when he and photographer Susana Moyaho visit the Island of the Dolls in Mexico.
    • This actually causes fans to have Epileptic Tree theories or flat out Fridge Horror regarding this: Fans feel that due to Steven's huge Reclusive Artist aspect, there's some implication that something happened that caused him to ever fear the idea of having children or even be in a relationship, hence his Attention Deficit Creator Disorder. It kinda hits the emotional moment considering Steven actually looks like he's about to break down into tears. Makes fans wonder why he's hit that epiphany about having children/being in a relationship and he's always writing such depressing topics.
    • Just the way he talks about losing children, the sheer amount of worries he wonders would affect someone, just the way he says "How do you cope with that?", which gives a disturbing and flat out tearful O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment for Steven, as he simply goes into long pauses and even turns away after talking about his own insecurity of having children. Makes you wonder what made him reach this point...
    • This is a bit more rectified later on in an interview where Steven admits that the reason he doesn't have children or have made a family is because he's sacrificed family for music. Sure that lessens the theory that a Noodle Incident made him abandon any prospect of having a family to make music but... damn. Although this diminished now that he's married.
  • His tribute the late David Bowie - a beautiful live performance of "Space Oddity".
  • The last two and a half minutes of "A Door Marked Summer" are a pleasant, instrumental Tear Jerker.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Steven's solo output doesn't sound much like Porcupine Tree, resulting in these reactions:
  • A lot of people weren't happy with Raven sounding like a 70s prog rock album, feeling as if Wilson is taking his love for the classic era of music too far.
  • The same goes with 2011's Grace for Drowning, which planted the seeds for Wilson's exploration in this style of music. This didn't go over so well with people who were introduced to Wilson's music through Porcupine Tree's 00s material.
• The Woobie: With The Raven and Hand. Cannot. Erase., Wilson was able to create a number of characters that can be identified as such:
  • From The Raven, there are The Old Man from the title track, who continues to mourn for the loss of his sister long after her death, and Charles, the focus of the music video for "Drive Home", who also qualifies as a Wheelchair Woobie.
  • As a sub-plot for Hand. Cannot. Erase., the music video for "Routine" features a woman who continuously and obsessively cleans her house to keep the memory of her family's murder at bay.
    • Let's not even go into detail involving the younger sister in the music video of "Perfect Life", who is spending time with her older sister until she ends up leaving abruptly, leaving her confused and devastated. Fits the tragic theme of the album too.
    • "H" on Hand. Cannot. Erase. is also this, being a woman who gradualy isolates herself from society, is hopelessly confused as to what's wrong with her, and arguably is taken away by "them" by the end of the album.
  • With a lack of personal life information or the fact he's always writing some depressing topics, fans will usually see Steven as this, or a Stoic Woobie. This has diminished with his increased presence on social media, which has shown that he's just as happy as the next person.

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