Album Review: Steven Wilson – The Harmony Codex

Artist: Steven Wilson | Album: The Harmony Codex | Genre: Art pop, Progressive electronic | Year: 2023

From: Hertfordshire, UK | Label: Virgin (UK), Spinefarm (US)

For fans of: Radiohead, Pink Floyd

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It’s been a decade since Steven Wilson’s last good solo album. (I almost said just “album,” but Closure/Continuation was good. Not great, but good.) Especially considering the trajectory of his last two solo releases, I did not have high hopes for The Harmony Codex. He’s been teasing this album for a while as a return to form, and he had repeatedly said it’s less pop-oriented than The Future Bites. Then again, I’m sure that Roger Waters also thinks his dogshit re-recording of The Dark Side of the Moon is good. Needless to say, I took Steven’s word with a (large) grain of salt.

And I am pleased to say my skepticism was mostly misplaced. The Harmony Codex is notably stronger than The Future Bites and To the Bone. Its album art is even an improvement over both those works! In addition to being his most interesting album in a while, it’s also his most electronic since his (quite crappy) 2004 collection of electronic music. Latter-era Porcupine Tree often dabbled with electronic elements, and Wilson is part of the electronic duo Bass Communion, so this pattern isn’t unprecedented.

“Inclination” starts things off on a tense, ominous note. The beat is anxious, and the various synth tones flutter nervously around the edge for the first 90 seconds. A bit more momentum starts to build with a series of weird guitar and synth passages. About three minutes in, the music stops altogether, and Wilson’s voice enters, unaccompanied. Piano and a stuttering drumbeat join in next for an interesting experience. I like the instrumental elements of this song a lot, but this isn’t Wilson’s best vocal performance. He never has been the strongest singer.

What follows is “What Life Brings”. The piano and acoustic guitar remind me a lot of some of Porcupine Tree’s gentler stuff, and the subtle effect applied to Wilson’s voice works well. This sort of moody, subdued material has always played to Wilson’s strengths as a pop songwriter.

“Economies of Scale” is the album’s first real hiccup. It’s unspectacular electronic-tinged pop music that doesn’t do anything interesting. The music video also feels like a terrible mismatch of energetic, herky-jerky dancing paired alongside a bland and syrupy backing track.

The nearly-eleven-minute “Impossible Tightrope” comes next, and it’s one of Wilson’s best songs ever. It features a tight, jumpy guitar line that harkens back to his work in the mid ‘00s, as well as Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days”. Bits of acoustic guitar and saxophone add to this exciting piece. The tension of the music does a great job of evoking the titular tightrope. The song’s second part features placid piano and gentle, distant vocals. This is one of the better applications of Steven Wilson’s penchant for falsetto singing. An ethereal choir joins in, and the tempo picks back up before shifting to something more guitar-forward. This cut also features an extended slightly-distorted electric piano solo. Entering its final 90 seconds, rock and electronic influences are blended well into a wonderfully wonky synth passage.

This piece is followed by “Rock Bottom”, a duet with frequent Steven Wilson collaborator Ninet Tayeb. I don’t like Tayeb’s voice very much, so this is not my favorite cut on the album. Musically, it’s okay. It’s slow-moving and ominous, but it doesn’t really develop too much throughout its runtime.

“Beautiful Scarecrow” starts with some electronic bloops, and this is another strong example of Wilson’s ability to build tension. There’s a Middle Eastern-tinged synth solo that slinks over a growling bassline in the song’s midpoint, and the whole track works very well.

The ten-minute title track comes next. It opens gently and dreamily, with an airy synth pad and occasional guitar and electric piano embellishments. Not much changes across the runtime of this song, but it somehow doesn’t feel like it runs too terribly long. There are enough subtle little things going on that it keeps it…I hesitate to say “interesting,” but not-boring, at least. It reminds me a lot of acts like Tangerine Dream.

A tense piano line opens “Time Is Running Out”, and Wilson gives another fairly strong vocal performance. The song is surprisingly warm once it gets going. This isn’t the most interesting piece of music here, either, but it’s a decent enough little song.

The electronic beat, haunting keyboards, and pitch-shifted vocals of “Actual Brutal Facts” cultivate an eerie atmosphere. The melody is strong, but this cut ultimately runs a bit thin on ideas and becomes repetitive by its end. It does feature a pretty cool, idiosyncratic guitar solo, though.

The Harmony Codex ends with “Staircase”, another cut which tops nine minutes. It’s anxious, with a claustrophobic atmosphere. The momentum builds naturally, and rock and electronic elements commingle. The real highlight of this cut is the bass solo near the five-minute mark. It’s got a nasty bite to it, and it’s covered in thick layers of effects. It’s melodic, flashy, and sticks around for just the right amount of time. Following this solo, the cut moves into mellower territory, with revisited narration from the title track.

I was pleasantly surprised by this release overall. I was prepared to slog my way through Steven Wilson’s newest album and possibly even relegate it to an Odds & Ends column. Instead, this is Wilson’s best melding of his rock and electronic leanings to date. It’s got plenty of smart pop sensibilities balanced alongside more progressive and experimental leanings. Not every track is a winner here, but this is his best release since The Raven That Refused to Sing.

Score: 79/100