Steven Wilson – The Overview (2025) – Review

Steven Wilson‘s 2023 piece, The Harmony Codex, didn’t quite work for us. And that came as a shock to some of the RMR crew over here. Because even the feisty and pop-laden The Future Bites managed to get into our good graces, and for cause. But it also garnered a lament of Wilson and others turning their mutual backs on prog.

Yet, in 2023, Wilson‘s latest piece of work felt like some very watery and – yes – boring material. Good for some background music in a bar, but not much more. Shocking indeed, for an act that dazzled us to no end with masterpieces such as Hands. Cannot. Erase.

As 2024 progressed, the RMR crew kept hearing from the Wilson camp that some renewed proggy vibes were about to explode into the open. Anytime soon. So, will the old fascination return to blow us out of the water? We frankly don’t think so. But hey, The Overview is here with wisdom to be shared. Let’s hear it, then.

Coming in late always saddles us with the questionable comfort to check out some of the most popular opinions in friggin’ Google World.¹ And as per most of those august viewpoints, The Overview should be at least at the uppermost top of its game.² The RMR crew might beg to differ. But one thing is clear: As always, Steven Wilson left us with an astute and outstandingly proficient load of pop and rock, some of it proggy and most not. A soggy and pale new version of Major Tom, taking us for a ride out on a journey into space on Starship Wilson.³ A record that won’t try to kill you in advance with the Battle ov Loudness for once. And that’s worth something, right?

But – these first viewpoints indeed got a few points right. Once you strip the sugary praise away and just concentrate on the facts, that is. The Overview contains a ton of newly found oldish progressive vibes, somewhat akin to a toned-down version of what was before in the famed Wilsonian Universe. But more to that later. The original record comes with two giant tracks, Objects Outlive Us and The Overview, totaling a crisp 42 minutes of airtime.⁴ Yet, for the sake of this critique, the review desk took the 10-track version for the sake of better cohesion.

And like HAL 9000 of the age-old movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, The Overview refuses orders and just doggedly sails on its course to the discovery of whatever is to be found in outer space. The record reminded us of prog and psych masters of the ’60s and ’70s. A retro-leaning mix, wedged somewhere in between Genesis and Pink Floyd with Mike Oldfield greasing the creaking cracks. A bunch of thoughts and impressions, vacillating between atmospheric musings to relatively simple rock ditties that – oddly – work pretty well in the context. Spacey stuff fueled by magic mushrooms, navigating about those starry vortices and galactic outer arms that should contain something useful for mankind. And – it kinda breaks up the monotony of space with some remembrance of livelihood from the past, doesn’t it?

Speaking about lively, Objects Outlive Us: Objects: Meanwhile is one of those rock tracks ringing out suddenly from behind Mars or something. You know, the song crazily stating that “…it is better to live without facts.” Wilson always likes to ram little nuggets like that one into his intricate lyrics, and did so already on To the Bone with a stab at Facebook, of all people. It is indeed this eerily well-balanced mix of spacey atmospherics and strange mainstream rock that keeps your attention on alert for more juicy little tidbits to soar forth.

And it’s funny. Some sections of Objects Outlive Us seem to be strangely – unfinished or undecided. Like on No Ghost on the Moor/Heat Death of the Universe using the odd guitar solo instead of a sax that would have brought the mournful melancholy better into play. And The Cicerones/Ark feels like a computer glitch, fueled only on synth-laden repetitive vibes and endless (boring) progression, but not much else. And that’s not the only track with these precise filler-like qualities.

The Overview in contrast heavily relies on synth-wave and pop-laden themes, fueled by Rotem Wilson‘s eerie interpretations of good ol’ HAL’s spacial musings manifested in bizarre monologues. But hey, the spoken word, in tandem with gothically-themed and space-laden electronica, and Dawnwalker-esque astonishingly powerful space rock, create this disturbing and psych-laden atmosphere of being in bizarre places. Only, the sound of a helicopter made no friggin’ sense to us. But then, that may just be us, right?

In the end, the RMR crew agrees with Steven Wilson. The Overview indeed contains some of the more proggier vibes found in the man’s latest concoctions. In many ways, this new record almost goes full circle to where the raven finally learned to sing. A retro-leaning and introspective piece, showing off while traveling through space and doing battle with HAL. Space tunes full of Alternative and Progressive Rock, refined with synth-heavy, yet ‘typical’ pop elements that saw the light of day much later in Wilson‘s career.

Yet, The Overview also seems to harken back to one Einar Solberg‘s late wailings more than taking us on a trve prog ride. But then, what is true prog anyway? And how can an artist break free from the confines of any self-inflicted genre? These are thorny questions that purists usually don’t like to ask. But those were the considerations Wilson here voiced once he released The Future Bites. In this light, Steven Wilson delivered not the best ever record of his career, but yet another very good and unique album fully aligned with his vision of being a free-wheeling artist.

And the RMR crew has a lot of respect for that.

1. Meaning, not necessarily the best out there. But the ones knowing to work the anal Google algorithm best. They got an ad budget to spend. It’s the freemium world, silly. -Ed.-↩
2. Corporate based, biased reviews? Some, I guess. -Ed.-↩
3. And no, David Bowie, you don’t get to be resurrected for this one.-↩
4. A few seconds more or less depending on the version you’re listening to.-↩