The Future Bites

The Future Bites (stylised as THE FUTURE BITES™) is the sixth studio album by British musician Steven Wilson. The album was initially set for release on 12 June 2020 through Caroline International, but later was pushed back to 29 January 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the marketing and production related to the album. It was co-produced by Wilson and David Kosten and recorded in London.
Background and themes.
The album deals with "two recurring themes" of Wilson's musical output, identity and technology, with a press release noting that it "picks apart our 21st century utopia, while also allowing for moments of personal growth and optimism". It was also called "less a bleak vision of an approaching dystopia, more a curious reading of the here and now", and lead single "Personal Shopper" was noted to expand on the electronic elements of Wilson's previous work, "fully diving into dance and neo-disco while somehow keeping a rock edge".
Marketing and promotion.
The marketing campaign of the album is based around The Future Bites, a fictional high end designer brand primarily inspired by Off-White, Supreme and Virgil Abloh. The Future Bites also has its own website and social media profiles, including an online store that acts as both a storefront for the album's various editions and fake products supposedly created by the brand.
Wilson has released several promotional videos that feature The Future Bites and there is a loose narrative concept that spans multiple timeframes.
For example, the music video for "Eminent Sleaze" depicts a post-apocalyptic dystopian future in the year 2032 where The Future Bites have become the world's largest global corporation and through excessive consumerism cause the earth's population to rapidly decline. The "Black Mirror" inspired music video for "Personal Shopper" is set in a present-day shopping mall and features a dark narrative twist - in order to purchase products in the shopping mall, the consumer must sacrifice a body part that corresponds to the product they are buying. Director Lucrecia Taormina said of the concept for the video that she "wanted to create a fictional world in which people buy goods and the transaction would not only be money but also a part of their body, alluding to the concept of the more you look for answers outside, the more you disappear on the inside."
A music video for "Self", released on 1 February 2021, makes use of deepfake imagery to transform Steven Wilson into Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mark Zuckerberg, David Bowie, Harrison Ford, Paul McCartney, Daniel Radcliffe, and many more notable public figures.
Critical reception.
"The Future Bites" was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 74 based on 13 reviews.
"Mojo" awarded the album 4 out of 5 and described it as "a great grown up pop record", opining that "(Wilson’s) solo work has seen him embracing dance, electronica and pop, and becoming all the better for it." "Uncut" awarded the album 8 out of 10, noting its "beautifully falsetto-iced vocal hooks" and "maverick meta pop". "Classic Rock" gave the album 9 out of 10, "Wilson has never before packed such a rollercoaster ride into a single album...Another triumph", and "Rocks Magazine" in Germany commented "Unpredictability remains Wilson’s credo" whilst rating the album 8 out of 10.
Track listing.
Initial announcements featured a slightly different track listing with "Man of the People" and "Personal Shopper" swapping places and "Anyone But Me" being the final track before the song was removed, and replaced with "Count of Unease". The limited edition deluxe box set features an additional CD with 10 bonus tracks, including six unused songs from the album recording sessions.
Personnel.
Adapted from Discogs.
Performers
Additional personnel