In late 2016, Wilson announced that he had returned to the studio to record his fifth album. During the first months of 2017, Wilson released two work-in-progress studio clips to his YouTube channel. On 5 January, he released a clip of "Pariah" and on 12 February, he released a clip of "To the Bone", featuring harmonica player Mark Feltham. Wilson continued to tease various images and small album details until 8 May when he revealed the track listing on his Instagram account and released the single "Pariah". The following day on his Instagram, he announced the album and an upcoming 2018 European tour, and the following week, on 18 May, a music video was released for "Pariah". Four further singles have been released to date: "The Same Asylum As Before", "Song of I", "Permanating" and "Refuge". A video for "Permanating" featuring a Bollywood dance troupe was released online on 21 July. A video for "Nowhere Now" was released on 19 September. A video for "The Same Asylum as Before" was released on 31 January 2019.
Concept and sound
According to Wilson, the album is inspired by the progressive pop records of his youth, such as Peter Gabriel's So, Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, Talk Talk's The Colour of Spring, and Tears for Fears' The Seeds of Love.
Critical reception
To The Bone has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Metacritic, a review aggregator, has given the album a normalised rating of 77 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on reviews from 12 critics. Uncut magazine stated "Wilson's fifth solo LP is a lush and ambitious piece of progressive pop music. Hitting on some heavy influences, including Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode, Bends-era Radiohead, and Todd Rundgren's electronic ballads, this insistently melodic, 11-song set is an old-school, sum-of-its parts experience". Planet Rock rated the album five stars, commenting that "Steven Wilson delivers his progressive masterpiece". Jordan Blum of Rebel Noise magazine said: "To the Bone is both a great album in its own right and a perfectly appropriate addition to Wilson's vast body of work". Sputnikmusic rated the album 4.5/5, stating: "Steven Wilson proves that an artist can venture into uncharted musical waters, even 30 years into their career, for ambitious and vibrant results like these". The Quietus Antonio Poscic criticised the album's "edgeless approach... underlined by the warm, lush production that tries to recreate the fondly and wrongly remembered organic sound of old records.... Ironically, the song that will surely be most controversial among his fans, 'Permanating', is a self-contained, resounding success... To the Bone would have been a better album if it had completely embraced this sort of levity." Drowned in Sounds Benjamin Bland felt Wilson "focused more on the idea of writing a pop record than on actually delivering the goods. There are hooks here, but they are scattered and often attached to tracks that come worryingly close to mediocre exercises in MOR."
Accolades
PopMatters elected it the best progressive rock and metal album of 2017.
Track listing
Personnel
Steven Wilson – vocals, guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, production
