Steven Wilson

In his work with the English band Porcupine Tree, singer and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson has definitively earned the title of progressive rock’s most ardent latter-day acolyte. The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories), Wilson’s recently issued third solo LP, is among the grandest statements of his convictions yet. Not quite a concept album, the disc mixes dreamy prog-rock grandeur and airy fusion-jazz flash in a cycle of elaborate original ghost stories. Played by a well-seasoned touring group that includes veterans of Asia, U.K., Kajagoogoo (!) and Miles Davis’s ’80s electric bands, Raven proves that fondness for the past doesn’t have to mean living in it—Wilson’s vitality and authority are firmly of the moment.