Band:	Steven Wilson
Album:	The Harmony Codex
Style:	Progressive rock
Release date:	September 29, 2023
A review by:	RaduP

Disc I
01. Inclination
02. What Life Brings
03. Economies Of Scale
04. Impossible Tightrope
05. Rock Bottom
06. Beautiful Scarecrow
07. The Harmony Codex
08. Time Is Running Out
09. Actual Brutal Facts
10. Staircase

Disc II [Harmonic Distortion] [deluxe edition bonus]
01. Codex Theme #7
02. Economies of Scale [Manic Street Preachers remix]
03. Codex Theme #9
04. Inclination [Faultline remix]
05. Impossible Tightrope [alternate version]
06. Codex Theme #6
07. Beautiful Scarecrow [Meat Beat Manifesto Excursion 1]
08. Codex Theme #8
09. Time Is Running Out [Mikael Åkerfeldt version]
10. Staircase [Interpol remix]
11. Codex Theme #3
12. What Life Brings [Aug 22 mix by Roland Orzabal]
13. The Harmony Codex [long take]
14. Staircase [Radiophonic Workshop rem]

Steven Wilson's move away from straight-forward prog rock in his main line of albums finally yields actual great results.

Pigeonholing Steven Wilson as a prog rock artist is stupid, considering how much of the man's work veered away from that. As far back as Altamont's Prayer for the Soul in 1984 tackling progressive electronica, to the psych rock of early Porcupine Tree, to the poppy art rock of Blackfield and the even poppier No-Man, the krautrock of I.E.M., the ambient electronica of Bass Communion, and to some of his first solo records being literally titled Unreleased Electronic Music Vol 1 and Tape Experiments 1985-86. But at the same time, it's not like art rock and psych rock and krautrock and progressive electronica aren't one stick throw away from progressive rock anyway, and just as his very early 80s work with Altamont was electronic, during the same period he made neo-prog as Karma. When people think of Porcupine Tree, they think of Fear Of A Blank Planet not Voyage 34. When people think of Steven Wilson, albums like The Raven That Refused To Sing come to mind, and all those other works outside of Porcupine Tree come later. Thus, these two threads of Steven being a prog rock artist and Steven veering away from being a prog artist have existed concurrently since the beginning.

It's no wonder that as soon as the art rock in his music started to overshadow the prog rock side when To The Bone followed Hand. Cannot. Erase. it was coincided with a drop in reception. I'm not saying that it's just the genre change, since I also think To The Bone was lackluster, but mostly in the parts of it that sounded most like what you'd expect Steven to do, and I liked the two tracks that felt most unlike him the most, namely the disco-ish "Permananting" and the trip-hop "Song Of I". I was also more fond of the follow-up, The Future Bites, as evidenced here, as that veered into even poppier sounds like synthpop, albeit with an artsy progressive take. As big of a fan as I was of that, I couldn't disagree that Steven's brushes with pop music often just showed how his vocals especially aren't quite cut for that genre and how his lyricism can sound a bit out of touch when doing critiques of consumerism, and a lot of the songs relied on how great they sound due to Steven's skills as a producer. There was still something missing.

Well, The Harmony Codex is somewhat of a return, feeling less overtly synthpoppy like its predecessor but also not reverting to prog rock the same way that the pretty unexpected Porcupine Tree reunion album did. Instead it feels like Steven Wilson found better grounding as an art rock/pop artist, pulling from various sides of his career, having already kinda figured out what works and what didn't. And trying to put into words what works about The Harmony Codex but didn't about To The Bone or The Future Bites without going into way too many details about individual tracks. There are moments in almost every track that have become very familiar and instantly rewarding, like the layered vocals in "Economies Of Scale" or the bass solo in "Staircase", but those aren't exactly representative of the album as a whole. There are things I could pinpoint that feel more representative though.

Steven's vocals not being fit for certain kinds of pop still doesn't negate how well they worked for the art rock-ish prog rock ballads that have became some of Porcupine Tree's best, and him opting for a similar approach in the poppier tracks like "What Life Brings" or "Time Is Running Out" are tried and tested formulas vocally. There are vocal moments like the weird whisper rap in "Actual Brutal Facts" that still feel a bit off-putting, but with the lyricism also being a bit less cringy or at least less noticeably so, it feels like it flows much better. Ninet Tayeb's moments on the record are also pretty neat, but "Rock Bottom" sounds a bit too much like "Don't Give Up" for comfort, and it's the only song where the lyricism is most noticeably tacky.

The music itself also is a mix of bringing elements that worked in the past, namely a bit more rock instrumentation, most often in the form of some very Gilmour-esque solos that make the entire thing sound very close to late era Pink Floyd at times. But as a whole the album doesn't bring way too many of the prog rock elements of the past, just enough to create some really groovy moments in some of the album's longer tracks, instead still opting for a more electronic-focused approach in a lot of it. Even the more rock instrumentation has percussion and synth work that seems to incorporate elements of electronica rather than mere prog, and some of the beats here, like the weirdly syncopated glitches of the opener or the subdued IDM of "Economies Of Scale" are genuinely some of the most interesting electronica to come from Steven's camp. There's an emphasis on ambiance as well, as evident by the title track being a mostly ambient piece whose length and place in the album is a bit weird for the album's momentum, but a lot of ambient seeps into the other tracks enough to make the album feel more fit for having such a piece right in the middle of it.

It's pretty rewarding for Steven to finally hit the nail on the head with a work that's more in the non-prog thread of his while still having his name of it. Usually these would be reserved for his other projects.