| | Full Review | Ratings (184) |
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| 0.0 | jesper STAFF | October 1st 23 |
Upon listening to this, I can clearly imagine sexy women stripping in a smokey bar to the music, I'm enjoying it, but I know I'm a bit of a degen for being here. The music sets you in a trance just like the women taking off their clothes, it's a perfect fit. While a good experience, I'm not going to want to do it repeatedly, cause it's a bit much. The tracks while great for this sensual encounter, rarely engage to a level of remarkable interest, and so is the problem with "The Harmony Codex". Wilson is too busy playing with his bells and whistles and forgets to write great songs.r
5 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.5 average | Thamse79 | October 2nd 23 |
In every interview I've read prior to the release Steven Wilson spoke about the super dooper
Stereo mix. It seems, that he wrote all the music to fit the mix. There is too much mediocre
and even boring and repetitive stuff on the record, for example "Inclination", "Impossible
tightrope" and the terribly boring title track. "Harmony Codex" is more of a musical
landscape than a collection of coherent songs. That may work during his private listenig
sessions with the Ultra-Super Mix, but at home it can be pretty annoying. In my opinion
"Staircase" is the only one of the long songs, that I would consider a really beautiful tune
- at least during the first 6 minutes. Then it has to be the long spoken word passage, which
kills the emotion and the song for me.
Of course it's not a terrible album, there are some decent songs, but none
of 'em lets my jaw drop. Also to me "Harmony Codex" seems pretty cold and soulless, with all
the electronic stuff, the drum machine and the spoken words all over. Cold as licking
iron.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | cloakanddagger | September 30th 23 |
Yeah this is good, huge step up for Steven Wilson after The Future Bites
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.5 average | Bro has djent in his pie | October 1st 23 |
Upon listening to this, I can clearly imagine sexy women stripping in a smokey bar to the music, I'm enjoying it, but I know I'm a bit of a degen for being here. The music sets you in a trance just like the women taking off their clothes, it's a perfect fit. While a good experience, I'm not going to want to do it repeatedly, cause it's a bit much. The tracks while great for this sensual encounter, rarely engage to a level of remarkable interest, and so is the problem with "The Harmony Codex". Wilson is too busy playing with his bells and whistles and forgets to write great songs.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.0 poor | urainus | October 1st 23 |
Steven’s ambition becomes a casualty to the typical writing pitfalls that have plagued all of his projects since 2019, that
being his apparent inability to write an interesting song. The album lacks flow or true energy, and any momentum is
either killed midway (like the pause in the middle of inclination) or run directly into the ground through excessive
repetition (As in the entirety of impossible tightrope). I grew up with his music, and it’s genuinely disheartening to hear
his new work become so banal and lifeless. This feels like more of an experiment in music production than an actual
album, and it’s a shame that the allure of working with new technology has eclipsed the desire to put effort into writing
the actual music. The production is phenomenal though, and it’s the only thing keeping me from docking another half a
point from this already abysmal score.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | Djang0 | September 30th 23 |
Fans of SW will welcome "The Harmony Codex" as a grander, proggier, more diverse, and
familiar offering compared to the brief length and more uncompromising electronic palettes
of "The Future Bites." rWas gonna write more but sput told me to write a review instead so I
might do that. Either way rating pending but I'm feelin a 9/10 on this one bc I'm a SW
fanboy (and also it's good)
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | StormSon73 | September 30th 23 |
An aural masterpiece, and an amazing return to form. Really pushing some boundaries here with what rock music is about.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.5 great | Benjamin Kuettel EMERITUS | September 30th 23 |
I have to respect how different The Harmony Codex is once again, which finds Steven Wilson continuing to evolve and experiment with new ideas beyond progressive rock with (mostly) great outcomes. If nothing else its noticeably more successful than the drastic change of The Future Bites, which I was pretty mixed on. THC is truly captivating throughout, sounding a bit similar to TFB but less poppy and a little more loose and sonically diverse. Theres a Jon Hassell sounding trumpet in the first track and just an odd structure overall there, and in Beautiful Scarecrow too that both emphasize electronic instrumentation in unconventional song structures. Then the following tracks are like slow Blackfield ballads meets Pink Floyd, and some prog stuff in Impossible Tightrope, all of which is great. The second half is a bit less consistent but still very good. The Harmony Codex is this nice droney ambient electronic epic and then kind of an art rock feel to the lush 10-minute album closer, Staircase, which is also great. I dont have much to say about the two songs in between those, like the Massive Attack inspired Actual Facts, or the pretty good one with Ninet Tayeb, Rock Bottom either. The clear highlights are What Life Brings, Economies of Scale, Impossible Tightrope, Harmony Codex, and Staircase. Overall not as excellent as anything he released before this decade, but a big improvement on TFB. 7.5 out of 10.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | Faraudo | September 29th 23 |
Ayyyy there is a lot of interesting stuff going on here, from trip hop to more familiar SW progressive sounds
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | Ayashi | September 29th 23 |
Hell yes, he did it. Easily best out of his last three. Working on a review.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | hankz66 | February 16th 24 |
Not bad by any means, but I was expecting more. A lot of the tracks sound samey (he sure loves that arpeggiator, doesn't he?) and a couple of tracks seem like slightly-less-good versions of songs from his earlier records (e.g. "Rock Bottom" is a knockoff "Pariah"). That said, I love the Massive Attack influences on tracks like Actual Brutal Facts. Standout tracks: Inclination, Economies of Scale and Staircase.
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | ajcollins15 | October 5th 23 |
There is a lot to take away from the newest Steven Wilson album. For one he continues to branch away from his own brand of art pop/rock and progressive rock. He started this progression on his last full-length album ?The Future Bites? in which we saw him experiment with progressive pop and synthpop. Here we see him go back to his early progressive electronic music like on his one band ?No-Man? or pseudonym ?Altamont?. From the opening minutes of ?Inclination? with its syncopated drums glitchy away across a dark drone backdrop you know you?re in for a much different listen than what he has been known for a while. To me, this is a welcome change because he really fumbled the ball on the newest Porcupine Tree record. ?The Harmony Codex? is a winding and artist piece of electronic and rock music not to far off from a Thome York. My biggest flaw is the random 10-minute ambient piece that sticks out like a sore thumb. It?s a fine piece of ambient music, but it feels so random and draws a lot of life out of the album.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | Siberiano | October 2nd 23 |
Much more than The Future Bites, much less than The Raven That Refused to Sing.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | Robert Davis | October 2nd 23 |
Just not feeling this tbh. It sounds as generic as Steven Wilson can get but the songs with Ninet Tayeb do stand out in a good way, plus there's a few moments in the album that bring me back to when I first heard LightBulb Sun.
Bump |
| 3.5 great | sanji999 | October 2nd 23 |
First listen left a mild impression on me but after a second listen, it clicks with me. He found a good balance between the synthpop era of his and his sadboi progstar sound. It feels old and new at the same time. He definetly created a new version of himself... again
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | HarmonizedDeath | September 29th 23 |
A nice return to form for Steven Wilson. Doesn't quite match the highs of HCE and TRTRTS, but
still blows his last 2 albums out of the water. Impossible Tightrope is an amazing track.
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | zakalwe | March 20th 24 |
| 4.0 excellent | Risodo | January 10th 24 |
| 3.5 great | Veldin | January 6th 24 |
| 3.0 good | Trey STAFF | November 28th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | Macck | November 24th 23 |
| 4.5 superb | ast | November 13th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | cb123 | November 13th 23 |
| 3.5 great | em17ah | November 7th 23 |
| 2.5 average | solrage | October 22nd 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | JoshieG | October 16th 23 |
| 3.5 great | ivnzam | October 16th 23 |
| 3.5 great | Kit | October 14th 23 |
| 3.5 great | Coast | October 14th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | valek | October 11th 23 |
| 3.5 great | Zakusz | October 10th 23 |
| 3.5 great | Gbhill | October 10th 23 |
| 2.5 average | hadriel | October 9th 23 |
| 3.0 good | Elynna | October 9th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | Hewitt | October 6th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | igi78 | October 6th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | ariich | October 5th 23 |
| 3.0 good | jmh886 | October 5th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | JJKeys | October 5th 23 |
| 3.0 good | Marci | October 5th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | Matty CONTRIBUTOR | October 4th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | LePsych | October 4th 23 |
| 3.5 great | Suyan | October 4th 23 |
| 2.5 average | Titan | October 4th 23 |
| 3.0 good | Snuron | October 4th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | Bard0 | October 3rd 23 |
| 3.0 good | NoXoR | October 3rd 23 |
| 3.5 great | fifek | October 2nd 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | Tom | October 2nd 23 |
| 3.8 excellent | Sunnyvale STAFF | October 2nd 23 |
| 5.0 classic | loulou | October 2nd 23 |
| 5.0 classic | Juuso | October 1st 23 |
| 1.0 awful | MAB | October 1st 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | skeed | October 1st 23 |
| 5.0 classic | pabcel | September 30th 23 |
| 3.0 good | Blurbs | September 30th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | JoneHK | September 30th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | Komodog | September 30th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | romanlst | September 29th 23 |
| 5.0 classic | dafjam | September 29th 23 |
| 5.0 classic | Rodstar | September 28th 23 |
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