Music / Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Hand cannot erase this love

Hand. Cannot. Erase. is the fourth studio album by English Progressive Rock musician Steven Wilson, released through Kscope on February 27, 2015. It is a concept album based loosely on the life and death of Joyce Carol Vincent, a 38-year-old Black woman who died in her London apartment and whose death went unnoticed for over two years as she cut off almost all contact with those she knew.

See also Dreams of a Life, a documentary about Vincent's life and death.

Track list:

1. "First Regret" (2:01)
2. "3 Years Older" (10:18)
3. "Hand. Cannot. Erase." (4:17)
4. "Perfect Life" (4:46)
5. "Routine" (8:58)
6. "Home Invasion" (6:24)
7. "Regret #9" (5:00)
8. "Transience" (2:43)
9. "Ancestral" (13:30)
10. "Happy Returns" (6:00)
11. "Ascendant Here On..." (1:54)

I can trope you more than you really know:

• Album Intro Track: "First Regret" is a short instrumental that segues into "3 Years Older"
• Book Ends: The first two and last two songs are pairs of Siamese Twin Songs.
• Breather Episode: "Transience" is a short, gentle acoustic song sandwiched between the heavy prog instrumental "Regret #9" and the epic "Ancestral".
• Concept Album: About a woman who cuts herself off from those she knows and eventually dies.
• Dying Alone: The ultimate fate of the protagonist after living in isolation from her friends and family.
• Epic Instrumental Opener:
  • The album takes almost five minutes for the vocals to appear, with "3 Years Older" having its instrumental opener exceed the length of "First Regret" by almost a minute.
  • "Home Invasion" takes about half the track for the vocals to come in.
• Foregone Conclusion: The album's story is inspired by a real person's death.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Despite having had friends, no one seemed to notice that the woman disappeared until her body was found years after she died. "Perfect Life" is implied to be written in the perspective of one of those friends.
• Hope Spot: "Happy Returns" has the woman prepare to get back in touch with her brother just before her death.
  "But I'm feeling kind of drowsy now
  So I'll finish this tomorrow"
• Limited Lyrics Song: The second half of "Perfect Life" is "We have got, We have got the perfect life" repeated eight times.
• Mesodiplosis: In "Routine"

  "Routine keeps me in line
  Helps me pass the time
  Helps me to sleep"

• No Ending:
  • "Home Invasion" abruptly segues into "Regret #9".
  • From a lyrical standpoint, "Happy Returns" is about the protagonist trying to get back in touch with her brother. Her message is unfinished, implying she dies abruptly before she could finish.
• Siamese Twin Songs:
  • "First Regret" is the intro to "3 Years Older".
  • "Ascendant Here On..." is the outro to "Happy Returns".
• Song Style Shift: The instrumental first half of "Home Invasion" and the instrumental second half of "Ancestral" have Progressive Metal leanings that appear nowhere else on the album.
• Spoken Word in Music: The first half of "Perfect Life" is spoken by a woman who is implied to have been the protagonist's best friend for all of six months before disappearing and being forgotten about.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The album uses the story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman whose death went unnoticed for just over two years due to her lack of contact with others, as a starting point. However, because the details of Vincent's life after the start of her social isolation are obviously unknown, the album heavily fictionalizes them, with Wilson providing his own interpretation about the events that led to her demise.

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