Steven Wilson – The Future Bites (4CD) (Deluxe) (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Steven Wilson – The Future Bites (4CD) (Deluxe) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:50:38 minutes | 3,15 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SW Records

Steven Wilson’s new album The Future Bites is an exploration of how the human brain has evolved in the Internet era. As well as being Wilson’s phenomenal sixth album, The Future Bites is also an online portal to a world of high concept design custom built for the ultra-modern consumer. Where 2017’s To The Bone confronted the emerging global issues of post truth and fake news, The Future Bites places the listener in a world of 21st century addictions. It’s a place where on-going, very public experiments constantly take place into the affects of nascent technology on our lives. From out of control retail therapy, manipulative social media and the loss of individuality, The Future Bites is less a bleak vision of an approaching dystopia, more a curious reading of the here and now.

Musically, The Future Bites gleams. Featuring gorgeous electronic sounds warped by human intervention (King Ghost), soaring acoustics that head straight upwards into the stratosphere (12 Things I Forgot), relentless bass-driven Motorik grooves (Follower) and swampish, murky funk (Eminent Sleaze), it is Steven’s most consistently brilliant work to date. The album was recorded in London and co-produced by David Kosten (Bat For Lashes, Everything Everything) and Steven Wilson.

Steven Wilson fans have been primed for The Future Bites since he released To the Bone in 2017. That record, and the preceding 4 1/2 EP, were deliberately “pop” responses to his three-album dalliance with prog — Raven That Refused to Sing, Hand. Cannot. Erase, and Grace for Drowning. In contrast to the above, The Future Bites is a slick exercise in Wilson’s oft-articulated love of synth pop and electronic music. It’s a loose concept set about the treachery that rampant consumerism foists upon the world, and the danger a technological society imposes on personal identity. Given the musical m.o. here, it should come as no surprise that the production on these nine songs is slick, even icy. It contrasts sharply with most of Wilson’s songwriting that remains saturated in welcoming, effusive melodies and hooks. On most tracks, guitars and drums are subservient to keyboards and electronic rhythms and soundscapes. As usual, the studio cast is stellar. It includes keyboardists Adam Holzman and Richard Barbieri, bassist Nick Beggs, drummer Michael Spearman, sonic architect and beat maestro Faultline (David Kosten), and backing vocalists Wendy Harriott, Bobbie Gordon, and Crystal Williams. Set highlights include “King Ghost,” which eschews conventional instrumentation in favor of dark, brooding, quasi-futurist electronics. They simultaneously reflect, “Memorabilia”-era Soft Cell, middle period Talk Talk, and Oil & Gold-era Shriekback. That said, the song’s subtle, airy melody is infectious, nearly hummable above the layered electronics. “12 Things I Forgot” is the most formally constructed pop song here. It’s framed by conventional guitars, organic drums, basses, and Rhodes piano, and glorious backing vocals from the Mystery Jets. The hooky melody walks a strange and circuitous path between vintage Todd Rundgren, early Aztec Camera, and Difford & Tilbrook. Weirdly, it contains a tagline hook straight out of Peter Frampton’s “I Want You (To Show Me the Way).” “Eminent Sleaze” delivers a sinister muscular beat driven by a bass-and-drum vamp that eerily recalls Dr. John’s “I Walk on Gilded Splinters” atop a spooky string chart and exponentially layered synthetic handclaps. Wilson adds a wonky Adrian Belew-esque guitar break, propelled by Beggs’ nasty Chapman Stick and Holzman’s restrained keys. The electro-disco of “Personal Shopper” channels Human League, Kraftwerk, and Giorgio Moroder. Its lyric is drenched in irony as Elton John reads from a shopping list of “shit you never knew you liked,” including “deluxe box sets” (a piss take, both men are guilty of releasing them). “Man of the People” is a lovely, alienated, bittersweet ballad adorned by Barbieri’s heavenly soundscape as guitars, pillowy beats, and atmospherics frame Wilson’s lovely faux-soul vocal. In sum, those who had trouble with To the Bone, Wilson’s well-executed homage to the progressive pop of Kate Bush, Tears for Fears, and Peter Gabriel, may have even more with this. Most fans, however, especially more recent ones, shouldn’t find The Future Bites an inconsistent entry in Wilson’s catalog, but an arguably minor one that steps sideways instead of forward. – Thom Jurek

Tracklist:
1-01. Steven Wilson – Unself (01:05)
1-02. Steven Wilson – Self (02:55)
1-03. Steven Wilson – King Ghost (04:06)
1-04. Steven Wilson – 12 Things I Forgot (04:42)
1-05. Steven Wilson – Eminent Sleaze (03:52)
1-06. Steven Wilson – Man Of The People (04:41)
1-07. Steven Wilson – Personal Shopper (09:49)
1-08. Steven Wilson – Follower (04:39)
1-09. Steven Wilson – Count Of Unease (06:08)
2-01. Steven Wilson – Eyewitness (05:19)
2-02. Steven Wilson – In Floral Green (05:33)
2-03. Steven Wilson – Move Like A Fever (Extended Vinyl Mix) (06:14)
2-04. Steven Wilson – Anyone But Me (03:53)
3-01. Steven Wilson – Personal Shopper (Biffy Clyro Remix) (04:37)
3-02. Steven Wilson – Follower (Hexadeci Mix) (06:28)
3-03. Steven Wilson – Personal Shopper (Nile Rodgers Remix) (06:10)
3-04. Steven Wilson – King Ghost (Magit Cacoon Mix) (06:10)
3-05. Steven Wilson – Personal Shopper (Pure Reason Revolution Mix) (04:45)
3-06. Steven Wilson – King Ghost (Tangerine Dream Mix) (09:23)
3-07. Steven Wilson – Personal Shopper (Fitness Tracker- Shearwater Mix) (05:44)
4-01. Steven Wilson – Personal Shopper (Extended Version) (19:42)
4-02. Steven Wilson – Unself (Long Version) (02:45)
4-03. Steven Wilson – Ha Bloody Ha (05:07)
4-04. Steven Wilson – Move Like A Fever (04:43)
4-05. Steven Wilson – King Ghost (Extended Mix) (08:26)
4-06. Steven Wilson – I Am Cliche (02:53)
4-07. Steven Wilson – Wave The White Flag (04:32)
4-08. Steven Wilson – Eminent Sleaze (Extended Remix) (08:13)
4-09. Steven Wilson – In Pieces (03:58)
4-10. Steven Wilson – Every Kingdom Falls (04:06)

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