Steven Wilson—Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Home Invasion captures a 2018 performance at London's Royal Albert Hall by Steven Wilson, who was on tour in support of To the Bone, the fifth studio recording made under his own name. At almost three hours, the 21-song set certainly gave the audience their money's worth. In a bonus interview, Wilson acknowledges that, "I don’t have any hits. It's kind of liberating." While that may be true, he has a deep catalog (not even including his work with Porcupine Tree), which allows him to range across genres from synth pop to prog rock. Wilson has collaborated with Robert Fripp and Alan Parsons, who co-produced 2013's The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories). If Wilson has a pleasant voice, it isn't especially distinctive, so it's fortunate that Israeli vocalist Ninet Tayeb joins him for a few tracks, including "Pariah," where her soaring vocals overpower his to the extent that she's more like a lead singer than a duet partner. Wilson’s quasi-psychedelic guitar playing brings to mind Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, especially in his interplay with keyboard player Adam Holzman, a former Miles Davis sideman. Visually, Wilson's artistic collaborators have pulled out all the stops with video backdrops that include stop-motion animation, photographic collages, and kaleidoscopic imagery, and the lighting ranges from clouds of fuchsia and violet to stroboscopic effects. If Wilson is better known in the U.K. than the U.S., this release—which includes "Nowhere Now," "Refuge," and "The Same Asylum as Before"—should help change that. Presented in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and LPCM stereo on Blu-ray, additional extras include three rehearsal tracks. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)