I think at this point, him making a prog rock album next would feel like him giving up and throwing in the towel to cater to the fans. I didn't necessarily think TFB was amazing or anything (but then again neither was the couple of albums before it) but I'll gladly take an artist doing something that makes them excited than doing what the fans want. That's always a creative graveyard in my opinion.
So, by this logic if Steven Wilson makes his next album a recording of the sound of him scratching his nuts you'll "gladly take" that over a new album of actual music because he might have made the music to please the fans?
I find that mindset utterly baffling.
I'm the consumer. I'm not his sugar daddy. If he doesn't put out a product I like, then I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut how much he enjoys yodeling into a microphone over electronic noises I ain't gonna spend my hard-earned money on it just because HE enjoyed making it. I'm not paying him for HIS enjoyment, I'm paying him for MY enjoyment.
But you don't have to pay for the product if it's not something you want though. There's been albums where it felt like the heart and soul wasn't in it and perhaps it was made to please the fans or keep the ball rolling, and it always feels quite clear to me. The Incident has that feel, whether intentional or not - I wouldn't say it's a bad album, but it came out at a time when PT had pretty much reached their end creatively, SW had already started on solo stuff and no matter what album you prefer, Insurgentes just feels like much more of a passion project that he had his soul into than The Incident.
Like I said earlier about The Future Bites, I don't particularly feel that strong about it either way (same as To the Bone and HCE) but it's interesting to hear him try new things and not be treading waters as an artist. There's plenty of bands and artists who keep putting out the same album over and over for 20-30-40 years and it's refreshing with the ones who have higher ambitions or show the courage to try new things. SW could easily stick to putting out prog album after prog album and worship the 70s bands and a lot of people would eat that up but he has the potential for more.
I always thought it was weird around Raven's release when people started talking about SW as a master musician following his least original album that pretty much ripped off what others did better 40 years earlier. At least with albums like To the Bone and Future Bites he's trying to do new things for himself and it's not all perfect but it's a lot more admirable than Raven part 2 or HCE part 2.
2 things:
1. I am sorry for the tone of that post. I won't edit it, because then this apology won't mean anything but reading it back it came across like I was berating you and I did not intend it that way so I am sorry if you were taken aback by it.
2. What I meant to say is this: I have no problem whatsoever with ANY artist who wants to try new things and branch out into different styles and such. Hell, one of my all-time favorite metal guys from back in the day was Gary Moore and imagine my surprise when he literally flipped a switch and stopped doing metal albums and started doing straight up blues albums. I was fucking HORRIFIED!
But eventually I started buying some of his blues albums and while I think he had a tendency to overplay his blues solos a little bit, he wrote some great, great songs.
So, I don't really have a problem with bands changing what they do, but just because I'm a fan of ____________________ doesn't mean I am going to just buy up everything they release until death do us part. The day Dream Theater releases a Beer Barrel Polka album is the day I climb down off the bandwagon. Now as far as Steven Wilson goes, as I've mentioned in many places I have no use for about 80% of his output, but for a while there it seemed like he was moving in a direction that I REALLY liked a lot. The Raven was the first solo album of his that I actually enjoyed and could listen to start to finish without having to skip through any of it. Hand.Cannot.Erase. was even better and then To The Bone was a bit of a jump down in terms of my enjoyment but if he had stayed on this trajectory I may have come along for the ride, but this new style where he sings in falsetto over electronic noises? Nope. Sorry. Hard pass. It's not for me.
Now that DOES NOT mean I want him to keep making HCE or TRWRTS over and over. But see, the thing is, I don't listen to Steven Wilson because I like falsetto vocals over electronic noise. I listen to (some) Steven Wilson because he has the ability to write music that I could connect with. Falsetto over electronica? If you asked me to think of the worst case scenario for a change in styles, this comes pretty damned close. I am, frankly, flabbergasted that anyone likes any of it.