As a youngster, songwriter and musician Steven Wilson idolized pop stars like Prince and David Bowie. And while Wilson ventured more into progressive rock with his solo work and his celebrated band Porcupine Tree, he feels that there has always been a strong “pop sensibility” in his music.

Mindful not to repeat himself, Wilson therefore decided to explore his more accessible and ’poppy’ side on the new album To The Bone. “I probably wouldn’t like being under that level of scrutiny, and I’m quite happy being more of an underground artist. But at the same time there’s a natural inclination in anyone that makes art that if you do something, and you put your heart and soul into it, there’s a need to share it with as many people as possible.”

Check out this video from FaceCulture:

Wilson’s expansive fifth album, To The Bone, is due for release on August 18th. To The Bone is a gloriously dynamic modernist pop record as imagined by the UK's biggest underground artist. Pre-orders are live at this location.

Fusing driving futurist rock and spectral electronics to elegiac hyper-space ambience and dizzying, squalling guitars, To The Bone is Steven Wilson's hat-tip to the hugely ambitious progressive pop records of his youth (think Peter Gabriel's So, Talk Talk's Colour Of Spring, Tears For Fears' Seeds Of Love).

Lyrically, the album's 11 tracks veer from the paranoid chaos of the post-truth era and the creeping self-loathing of the technology age to steely fly-on-the-wall observations of the everyday lives of religious fundamentalists with a welcome shot or two of wide-eyed escapism. Sonically and melodically stunning, To The Bone is a high definition snapshot of the disconcerting times we live in.

The follow up to 2015’s Hand. Cannot. Erase., To The Bone is Steven Wilson’s first album since signing with Caroline International (Iggy Pop, Underworld, Thurston Moore, Glass Animals).

Formerly the founder and mainstay of outsider rock band Porcupine Tree, Steven released his first record under his own name, Insurgentes, in 2008. He has been resolutely independent throughout a three-decade career that’s made him the most successful British artist you've never heard of.

Tracklisting:

“To The Bone”
“Nowhere Now”
“Pariah”
“The Same Asylum As Before”
“Refuge”
“Permanating”
“Blank Tapes”
“People Who Eat Darkness”
“Song Of I”
“Detonation”
“Song Of Unborn”

“Refuge” lyric video:

“Permanating”:

“Song Of I” video:

“Pariah” video: