4/5 stars
Joyce Vincent was a young English woman who died in her London flat in December 2003. Her corpse was only discovered in 2006. No-one had bothered to check in on poor Joyce for almost three years.
The reason for that grim opening is because Steven Wilson, the progressive rock magician, has gone off and written a rather accessible concept album about Vincent. The first song to note is the title track, with catchy rock that comes off as almost a progressive impression of Coldplay. The following song on the tracklist, ‘Perfect Life’, which has been released as a single, occupies an avant-garde electronica/rock mood in common with fellow English heavyweights Radiohead.
However, the comparison to these established bands does Wilson’s individual brilliance a great disservice. Hand. Cannot. Erase. takes the listener every which way, with soaring vocals in ‘Routine’ transitioning to soft progressive rock, the metal-esque odd-time chugga on ‘Home Invasion’, and the Steve Vai-like soaring guitars on ‘Ancestral’.
It’s difficult to give a fair account of a progressive rock album in so few words, given the delicious bubbling hot tomato sauce of musical influences on something like Hand. Cannot. Erase. So in short: it is very good.
