Background
The record is a concept album about the overview effect, a cognitive shift caused by viewing the Earth from space. This concept was utilized, according to Wilson, as a starting point for the sound of the record, which recalls the sound of such seminal prog artists as Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, and Vangelis, though brought into "a modern context". [1] Wilson had stated that the album was going to be considerably more progressive rock influenced than much of his recent work, stating that he felt the concept geared itself well to the genre. [1]
On 25 February 2025, the record premiered at the BFI IMAX alongside a commissioned film by Miles Skarin. [2] Alongside the main album, a deluxe edition titled The Alterview, featuring an additional hour of music, was released. [3] A tour also started in promotion of the record on 1 May 2025, Wilson's first headlining solo tour in over seven years. [1] [4]
Critical reception
The Overview received positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82 based on eight reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [5]
For Mojo , Tom Doyle gave the album 4/4 stars, writing: "Wilson has to be admired for boldly venturing into the prog regions where his contemporaries fear to go. By doubling down on The Overview, his status as the progfather is secure, alongside his alignment with those mixing-desk visionaries he so admired in his youth. While some of its more indulgent elements may not be to all tastes, his scale of ambition and dazzling audacity should be applauded." [11]
Ed Power in The Irish Times awarded 4/5 stars, writing that the album "feels like one of the better Christopher Nolan films translated to music: it’s vaulted, self-serious and a bit silly. But the sheer ambition has its own kind of beauty; you’ll be impressed by Wilson’s determination to keep a straight face amid the sonic absurdity. In the best sense, it is out of this world, a pirouetting profusion of prog pyrotechnics that will charm students of the form like a saucerful of secrets." [12]
In The Guardian , Alexis Petridis wrote: "An 18-minute-long suite that throws in every influence imaginable from Warp Records-style techno to Floyd melancholy to gleefully OTT prog-metal and somehow, astonishingly, works: unexpected but triumphant." [13]
Giving the album 4.5/5 stars, Chris Roberts wrote in Louder : "The Overview is not so much a return to form (Wilson hasn’t been off it) as a return to full-fat, unskimmed prog from the man whose work with Porcupine Tree gave the genre a good name even before it earned reappraisals in more recent years." [14]
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