“It’s an old-fashioned piece of conceptual rock”: Steven Wilson issues album update and promises no less than the reinvention of the “extended classic rock solo”

Steven Wilson performs at the Royal Albert Hall: on a stage lit in purple, he plays his Fender Telecaster.

Prog icon Steven Wilson will soon drop his eighth studio album and he has offered an update in which he describes it as a two-part epic of untrammelled progressive rock with a guitar solo that will “reinvent the notion of the extended classic rock solo”.

Speaking to the NME, Wilson gave prog-rock fans the news they want to hear. He is going all-in with the conceptual approach, and The Overview – named for the disorientation that astronauts feel when they return to terra firma – is similarly bold in its vision as Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd were at the height of their creative powers.