Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Steven Wilson excels at ambitious projects that bring the finest musicians and cutting-edge technology together. In another era, this album might be 2112 or The Wall. Presently, it’s a masterwork partly inspired by the story of a 38-year-old woman whose body was discovered in her London flat several years after she’d died, despite having friends and family. Wilson imagines a living woman, her thoughts and her rituals for coping with everyday living. Dramatic, extended instrumental work (“First Regret,” “Routine,” “Home Invasion,” “Ancestral”) exists within conventional songs, creating a monumentally virtuosic and poetic emotional work worthy of its grandeur.