Cover Version - CD

Steven Wilson: Cover Version version on CD in Remastered edition. This particular edition was published in Europe in publishing company Kscope on 26. September 2025.

Steven Wilson: "Cover Version" Wilson's unknown past on his fourth solo album Who is Steven Wilson? His album "Cover Version" provides the answer. Aside from the cover versions that gave the album its title, the album subtly, yet in full force, hides the full kaleidoscope of what makes Wilson a solo musician. For nearly a decade, the songs on this album rarely appeared. As an anthology, "Cover Version" finally brings together 12 songs that were released as a series of singles between 2003 and 2010 in an edition of 1,000. Even with the re-release, each single was only available 3,000 times - a true collector's item. As part of the "Cover Version" series, Steven Wilson has released six singles in the past decade, each featuring a cover version paired with the original song. These rare singles were Wilson's first solo efforts after his stellar career with Porcupine Tree and Blackfield. His solo career is now equally successful: three solo albums, most notably 2013's "The Raven That Refused To Sing (& Other Stories)", have earned him numerous awards and a Top 3 position in the German album chart. Since then, Steven Wilson has been one of the top progressive rock artists. The album "Cover Version" closes a decisive historical gap in Steven Wilson's career that his fans have been waiting for. "Cover Version" is definitely more than the title suggests. In this collection, Wilson exemplifies what makes a good cover version: a great song inspires a creative rewrite that is both artistically independent and honors the musician of the original. We haven't heard Alanis Morrisette, Abba, Prince, Mumus and Donovan like this before. This is partly due to Wilson's high voice and partly due to the instrumentation of each song. Quite simply and hesitantly accompanied by acoustic guitar, he interprets Morrissette's "Thank You" even more anguished than the original. "The Day Before You Came" was already one of Abba's darker hits in the original version, and here it gets an expressive new interpretation that feels just as slowed down as "Thank You." Almost hauntingly, Wilson covers The Cure's "A Forest" in a sparse electronic interpretation with loops, while the cover version of Prince's "Sign O' The Times" goes in a completely different direction with a bass and beat. In the end, Steven Wilson succeeds in these reinterpretations in doing what every good cover version does: we desperately want to hear the original again - and when that happens, the original song, which had class on its own, gains in depth. But you get even more information from the "Cover Version". We get to know Steven Wilson in his own compositions, which originally appeared as B-sides on the 7" singles of the cover versions. Wilson has a recognizable sound, he emotionally captivates the listener with his fragile, high-pitched voice and he orchestrates skillfully: whether in the simple piano ballad "Moment I Lost", which gains in sonority towards the end in Wilson's typical style, in "Please Come Home", which pleases precisely with its melodicism and, as always, its perfect guitar accompaniment, or in "Four Trees Down", which seems to come from another world like "A Forest". We would like to thank Steven Wilson for the anthology "Cover Version". Due to the low first run of the "Cover Version" singles series, only a small number of people could follow the chronological development of the soloists. In the future, Steven Wilson's career would unfold without gaps and he would prove to be much more than a top progressive rock star. Product Information Collected for the first time on one CD, this 12-track set features 6 Steven Wilson originals and 6 cover versions of songs by Alanis Morissette, Abba, The Cure, Momus, Prince and Donovan that appeared on the rare "Cover Version" singles series from 2003-2010. In March 2003, Steven Wilson released "Cover Version", a 2 track CD single that was limited to a small number of copies. Although he has fronted a number of bands over his extensive career, including Porcupine Tree and No-Man, and recorded under various names (IEM, Bass Communion), this was the first work he released under his own name. The single consisted of one cover version and one new, original song. This proved to be the first of a series of cover versions, as he released five more singles over the next few years. The artists he covered reflect the diverse range of music that influences him, and include songs by Alanis Morissette, Abba, The Cure, Mumus, Prince and Donovan. Each of the CD singles was limited to a few thousand copies, with the final release ("Cover Version VI") being issued in a special box for all six CDs with cover art designed by Carl Glover and a booklet featuring portraits of Steven by Hajo Mueller. The release of the 7" singles was even more limited (500 copies), but as Wilson's popularity grew, both through his work with Porcupine Tree and his burgeoning solo career, these long sold-out recordings became highly sought after by collectors. These tracks provide a fascinating insight into Wilson's musical tastes and his development as a solo artist. Issued by Kscope in a sleeve with graphics "remixed" from Carl Glover's box art.

Album spans genres Rock, Folk, World, & Country, Electronic, Progressive rock, Folk and Ambient.