First reaction to Steven Wilson The Perfect Life

[@jabbertwardy]

Steven Wilson makes some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard.

[@jason.h.zager88]

This song about losing loved one..and the pain after that...the hard part is to live with the memories they left behind...

[@jacobm.vantuijl]

I used to make mix tapes for my girlfriend back in the day. And we had a Perfect Life. I teared up when i first listened to this. Memories... Hand. Cannot. Erase. is one of my favorite albums by Steven and one of my favorites of all time. Thanks for this!

[@miroslavkozisek3986]

“A lot of the experiences of this woman are actually my experiences of living in the city - my experiences of being a child,” Steven Wilson tells FaceCulture. “Some of the images are taken directly from my own childhood. ‘Perfect Life’ has a line in it where the character is talking in the first person, and this is a very poetic example, but she says: ‘Sometimes, we would go down to Blackbirds Moor in the twiight, and watch the barges on Grand Union.’ Now that might not mean anything to you, but Blackbirds Moor is a park near to where I grew up. The Grand Union is a canal that runs through my town, and barges were the boats that used to pass along the Grand Union canal. And I absolutely remember, as a child, going down to the park on a beautiful summer evening with my friend, and watching the barges go past on the canal. So, that is a very vivid, but real image from my childhood - and I gave it to my character.” The results on “Perfect Life” are as gorgeous as they are enigmatic, and an involving reminder of the larger things at play here as Steven Wilson is joined by most of his confederates from 2013’s The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories). He actually takes on the bulk of the instrumentation for “Perfect Life,” handling guitars and keyboards, a mellotron (as promised) and programming. The session was rounded out by long-time band members Nick Beggs on Chapman Stick and backing vocals, Adam Holzman on the Fender Rhodes, and Marco Minnemann on drums. Youssef Nassar directed the video, embedded above.

[@SummerMcGaha]

Thank you for sharing this! That's fascinating, and helps me understand it a little bit better. I'll listen to it.

[@miroslavkozisek3986]

@@SummerMcGaha Be sure to listen to the whole album, there are beautiful songs, Steven Wilson is an instrumentalist, a music god !!! Perfect life is a sad song on the one hand, but beautiful, I always have tears in my eyes ... I've seen it play twice not live at a concert, an incredible experience. Thanks for the response to the beautiful songs.

[@gabrielmontoya2894]

That's wonderful. ✨🙌

[@SummerMcGaha]

I listened to it last night and loved it all! Especially the first two songs. It felt like a movie score, very energetic and emotional music.

[@Mandeepd13]

You look like the girl Steven talks about in some songs. Weird but cool. Nice to see that young people are still listening to good music. Keep up the good work and try to be happy.

[@Powick01]

Absolutely love this track

[@miroslavkozisek3986]

ABOUT HAND. CANNOT. ERASE. Hand. Cannot. Erase. is the fourth solo studio album by Steven Wilson. The album was released on 27 February 2015 through Kscope. The album was recorded in September 2014 at AIR Studios, London, UK. The album is written from a female perspective, and the concept and story are inspired by the case of Joyce Carol Vincent, where a woman living in a large city dies in her apartment and no one misses her for over three years, despite her having family and friends. “The basic story, or concept of the record - it’s about a woman growing up, who goes to live in the city, very isolated, and she disappears one day and no one notices. There’s more to it than that. Now, what’s really interesting about this story is that your initial reaction when you hear a story like that is, ‘Ah, little old bag lady that no one notices, no one cares about.’ She wasn’t like that. She was young, she was popular, she was attractive, she had many friends, she had family, but for whatever reason, nobody missed her for three years.”

[@SummerMcGaha]

That's tragic, but it sounds like an amazing album! Thank you so much for explaining it. I really appreciate it, because I didn't understand why there was so much sadness juxtaposed with such a beautiful video, and the song was beautiful too.

[@firecatwess1794]

Thanks for quoting what Steven Wilson said about this album, I also heard him say that. So far Hand Cannot Erase is my favorite Steven Wilson album

[@gabrielmontoya2894]

The artists mentioned in this song are some of my favorites since a teen! Pretty good tune.

[@pipeconsal]

Unas de mis canciones favoritas. Regards

[@miroslavkozisek3986]

Great reaction to the song Index, a beautiful song, but played live at the concert ... an incredible experience, indescribable ...

[@franckb8279]

Masterpiece. The album is to listen as a whole to ne able to fully appreciate it. Sad beautiful song and album. In my opinion, his best solo album.

[@carstenhorn5075]

I absolutely agree! A fantastic and very emotional album

[@SummerMcGaha]

I listened to it last night!! My favorite ones were the first two songs I think. It felt like a movie where a ghost is watching the lives of people who were important to them. The music itself was especially intense, like a movie score. I loved it!

[@carstenhorn5075]

@@SummerMcGaha Yes, it's really like a movie! I also love the song Happy returns

[@firecatwess1794]

@@SummerMcGaha I am so glad you listened to this album. Guthrie Govan supplied some of my favorite guitar solos that I've ever heard. They fit the songs so well. The videos, music and the lyrics really made this an incredible piece of art.

[@firecatwess1794]

Sometimes when I see that you are reacting to a Steve Wilson song, I get a little worried because you seem to feel things so deeply, but it is probably an irrational fear because it seems like your life experiences has given you a certain strength or perhaps a core of steel when needed. The Steven Wilson song Routine that you reacted to last year is also on the Hand Cannot Erase album and I have seen quite a few reactors break down hard while watching the video for that song. Some cried incredibly hard, and I remember one in particular who had to stop recording when the song ended because she had a similar experience as the character in the video. This is a very beautiful song.

[@SummerMcGaha]

At the time of reacting to Routine, I had been deeply sadden by the passing of Trevor Moore even though of course I didn't know him personally. I'd been a fan of him and WKUK and Trevor for many years, and throughout the pandemic he'd tweet hilarious ancedotes and just things that made that nightmarish time when it was at it worse a little less bleak. To him maybe they were random thoughts, but for countless it was a unique way of looking at the situation that helped. I was shocked by the news of it and it hit me really hard. Coincidentally, many of the requests during that time were on the topics of grief, mourning, loss and depression. Routine was one of them, but by the time I had reacted to it, I had cried so much to so many of the other ones before it, and it helped me cope so that by the time I watched it, it wasn't as raw to me anymore. Music is so healing. 🙂

[@firecatwess1794]

@@SummerMcGaha I know what you mean when an artist that you really like passes & how hard it hits you even though you don't know the person personally. When Neil Peart from Rush passed in January of 2020 it really hit me hard. 😢

[@Kosgrim]

finally a TRUE reaction

[@oobenoob]

You’re beautiful.