ARJEN LUCASSEN – Songs No One Will Hear (Album Review)

Not since Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson collaborated on their semi-eponymous Alan Parsons Project has there been a more ambitious concept rock project than Arjen Lucassen and his Ayreon Universe. Certainly, there have been ambitious producers like Zappa, Bowie, and Prince. There have been ground-breaking concept albums like The Wall, Tommy, Streets, Scenes from a Memory, and Operation Mindcrime. However, in terms of scope and breadth, nothing quite compares to the Ayreon body of work, with its dozens of world-class performers, and an ambitious, cohesive story that ties together all but a couple of the albums, which are double-LPs with very few exceptions.

Self-described big, tall Dutch hippie Arjen Lucassen may fool many with his affable demeanor, but there is little to hint at the capable producer and intense dreamer lurking beneath, aside from his obvious ability to nerd out at Hollywood movies, especially the sci-fi and fantasy variety. A few Arjen projects are floating at the periphery of the Ayreon universe, such as Star One, Stream of Passion, and Gentle Storm, but the nine(-ish) Ayreon albums remain the brightest and most prominent jewel in Arjen’s crown as King of Concept Prog Rock. For reasons which will be apparent soon, it is necessary to at least attempt to summarize the thematic elements of Ayreon’s story. Is it even possible to summarize such a grand body of work? Well, let’s see.

In something resembling chronological order, there is some primal soul called the Universal Migrator at the dawn of all things (let there be light?) and this gives rise to life around the galaxy, but most notable to the story are “the Forever” who start on Planet Alpha, but due to catastrophe relocate to Planet Y (aka 01011001 in binary). These advanced people seem to have traded their mortality and humanity to be perfect and undying, but in doing so, doom themselves.

Before they pull the plug and unalive themselves from the galactic census, they conceive some means of germinating faraway Earth with what will eventually become humans like us. Unless you are a very well-read cat or squirrel, in which case, well done. At any rate, humanity eventually does as humans do. Nearing the end of our current century, things look less than optimal, so they use time telepathy to show the future to a poor, blind bastard bard in 6th-century Britain named Ayreon.

Our titular hero is intended to warn humans to maybe human a little less, but this spooks Merlin, who summarily proceeds to yeet his mortal coil. Merlin has instant regrets, but the damage is done. It is unclear whether humanity gets wiped out in 2084 by global conflict or in 2085 by air conditioning and KFC, but what we know is that a small last-ditch effort is made to colonize Mars. Somehow, there ends up only being one lonesome man left on Mars, and he uses a reincarnation device to send his consciousness backwards over the course of about a dozen eras of human history before eventually skipping Earth to get back to the Forever and eventually reincarnating himself as the Universal Migrator, starting the whole thing again.

So, here we are in 2025, and Arjen has decided to do a second solo album. Two obvious questions would be what the first album is about, and why do a solo album when you are essentially a solo artist? Well, the first solo album seems somehow adjacent to the Ayreon storyline, with the protagonist “Mr. L” being on loan from the binary 01011001 album. Apparently, Mr. L is frozen to save him from terminal illness and wakes in the future, where he must learn to adapt and cope. Is this a future where humanity “listened to the warning” and does not perish from misadventure? Only Arjen knows.

Speaking of whom, regarding the second question, these solo albums seem to be an opportunity to do something obviously Ayreon-like, but without the vast cast of characters, and without the pressures of operating while wearing the Ayreon mantle and all its high expectations. Heavy is the head that bears the crown, after all. Our own publication was very critical of the final Ayreon album Transitus, in part because it deviated so forcibly from the Ayreon formula.

So what is it that Prince Arjen is doing while masquerading in the markets as a commoner? Oh, nothing too heavy or serious, just a concept album about a massive asteroid colliding with Earth and eradicating all life as we know it. The album Songs No One Will Hear suddenly seems less like a fun poke at oneself and more like a “now I understand why no one will hear these songs” moment. This is also why the context of the Ayreon Universe comes into play. Like the previous album, Lost in the New Real, it seems to exist not quite in the canonical Ayreon lore, but all the same, interwoven with the themes, with some obvious connections.

The album actually opens with a disc jockey sting for Mike “Toehider” Mills, and his self-titled apocalyptic radio program. In snarky Aussie delivery, he proceeds to complain about the imminent bummer in a way that clues us in to what is happening. One fun fact is that the album liner notes contain more Mills DJ persona notes before every track, although they do not appear in the actual album audio. In any case, it seems the asteroid/meteor/space-rock is about 4 or 5 months away from ending everything, which is just enough time for humanity to make a big mess before signing off. So let’s get into it.

The first real song is “The Clock Ticks Down,” opening with Arjen’s vocals. While he often plays supporting characters in other albums, on his solo albums, he does most of the heavy lifting. Interestingly enough, shortly after the song starts, it sounds like Irene Jansen from Human Equation joins in for a couple of verses, and the way she sings about surrendering to our fate is very close to Day 2 of the Human Equation: “listen to your heartbeat, surrender to its pulse.” Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but it feels like Ayreon already. Once her vocals are done for the moment, synth keys come hammering in with some fierce distortion guitar riffing in the classic Arjen wall of sound, complete with his signature lead guitar licks. The song’s lyrics mostly deal with the obvious first phase of worldwide grieving, little vignettes of people and their sadness, denial, and regret about wasted years, failed relations, and incomplete plans.

“God-damned Conspiracy” is in that distortion-and-flute flavor only Ayreon can do so well, and it’s an obvious poke at human nature, in the vein of previous Ayreon work about people being delusional in the face of impending doom. This one makes references to comedic potbelly vampire goblin sort of conjecture while lamenting the fact that a rock the size of the moon is right there if you just open your eyes. For all the good it does. “The Universe Has Other Plans” is a more subdued work of a string quartet, laying the foundation for a minor-key rock piece about unrealized dreams and unrequited love. It’s essentially a song about forgoing bucket list experiences so you can pay off your car loan on time, only to have Earth explode next month.

In all seriousness, if the world’s smallest violin is trying to play a heart-tugging series of vibrato notes in the middle of the song, it works. Really good playing. On a side note, the Mike Mills disc jockey liner notes refer to how we all have to go sometime, and quote an anonymous wise man as saying “Not ragged clothed, nor silver spooned, you’re all the same when extinction looms,” which is actually a Mike Mills lyrical verse from Ayreon’s “The Source” album. See? It’s all related. Then again, as Death says, “whether you are a king or a lowly street-sweeper, sooner or later you all dance with the reaper.”

On the other end of seriousness, we have “Shaggathon,” a tongue-in-cheek (and other places) fancy about what a substantial portion of the population would probably spend the last couple of months doing while the rest of humanity is trying to live beyond Thunderdome. Aside from the comedic eroticism, the song has a fun major key jangly beat, with nice interplay between guitar and fiddle. Back to the grim topic, “We’ll Never Know” spends more time pondering the profound loss at the end of all things. In this case, it seems to be a couple expecting the birth of a daughter who will never arrive due to the coming catastrophe, and all are wondering what person she may have been. The arrangement of the track is very nice, on par with most anything from the Human Equation album. It’s a dark metal song, but the use of strings is great. The female vocalist sounds like it could be Marcela Bovio from Stream of Passion, or maybe even one of the Jansen sisters, but the singing is 10/10.

“Dr. Slumber’s Blue Bus” comes in dark and heavy, but resolves into a happy little tune about the titular bus taking everyone to Sanctuary Island for a front row seat to Armageddon. It would honestly be disappointing if the big Dutch hippie did not include a song about a blue bus going to a commune. Questions remain about the logistics of a bus that moves thousands or millions of people across oceans, but we’ll just assume it’s pulled by magic reindeer. Acoustic guitar and strings come together for a poignant “acceptance” phase of the grieving process in the track “Just Not Today.” The imagery of an uninhabited rock orbiting the sun is rather bleak, but when you pick up an Arjen album, it seems like there’s at least a 50/50 chance of “everybody dies.”

Finally (pun intended), we come to “Our Final Song.” Maybe this is what Arjen is strumming on acoustic guitar on a beach with his faithful Papillion. It’s a 15-minute beast of a track. While much of this album is “Diet Ayreon,” this last track is fully switched on. No, it does not have 10 different vocalists, or Akerfeldt growls or Hevy-Devy screams, but all the other trappings are there. The rising and falling action, the elaborate arrangements, the bombastic keys, the slamming guitar chords. It’s all there.

The track checks in on the vibe at Sanctuary Island, where apparently people want to be the first ones hit by the meteor, which, in fairness, might not be the worst idea. Then the glow intensifies as the meteor breaches Earth’s atmosphere, and we get some more confessions from people at the end, wracked with guilt and regret. An instrumental section moves along with Arjen’s signature leads and some lovely woodwinds, before Anger and Acceptance intertwine in a vocal duet, pleading with fate, perhaps wondering if Earth’s arsenal could be turned to eliminate the threat, while others accept the situation as it is. And so we come to the crux of the album:

And me, I’m out here all alone
I’m free, as music fills my soul
Inspiration madly flows, I feel no fear
Writing songs, no one… will hear

We have a few more verses to reflect on the end of humanity as we know it. Don’t expect anything uplifting. It’s a funeral dirge for, well, us. A crashing explosion is heard, and DJ Mike Mills clicks the mic to send one last transmission, and hopefully, to the delight of Eric Idle, tells us to “Always look on the bright side of…”

There are a few more verses about the end of all things, just to really drive home the bummer vibes (Arjen, are you OK buddy? Do you need a hug?” Before a mysterious phase says “Mission Complete. Let the new Phase Begin.” We have heard similar clues at the end of Ayreon albums. The voice at the end of Electric Castle telling the cast of characters from across history that this was a grand experiment (not the final one, of course) to experience human emotion. Likewise, at the end of Human Equation, which seemed to be a pedestrian psychological study about guilt and betrayal in a coma, we hear the dream sequencer sound effects from Universal Migrator, telling us that the entire story had been a simulation or a reincarnation replay. So, we are left to wonder if this is a clue about the Ayreon Universe, or just the whims of the author and his love for little Easter Eggs.

For a single-disc album, it’s a fair amount to take in, and the subject matter hardly feels like feel-good popcorn. Let’s summarize it as such. As mentioned before, it’s mostly a diet Ayreon cola. Shame the concept is about as dark as a concept can be without being a work of actual grisly horror, because otherwise it could serve as an Ayreon album for when you want to listen to something that’s less than 2 hours long and isn’t about intergalactic societal collapses and cosmic consciousness. Well, maybe that’s what you have Steely Dan and the Eagles for.

Arjen did a good job here of only giving Ayreon fans what they like, and probably little or nothing that they dislike, and all without the expectations that come with the Ayreon brand. It’s like watching the hour of deleted scenes from Spinal Tap and realizing it’s 90% as good as the movie itself. This is like the Ayreon bonus album you did not know existed, but you are glad it does.

Production is top-shelf as all things with Arjen’s fingerprints. Arrangements are above-average, or at least on par with the high standards of Ayreon and Star One material. Considering the vocal duties are Arjen himself and some participation from a few old friends, the vocal area of the album really punches above its weight class. Despite the topic being less-than-inspiring, it contains enough comic relief and Ayreon-adjacent elements to make it required listening all the same.

In short, this is like Revel In Time, the third and most recent Star One album. Is it technically an Ayreon album? No. Is it just as good? Pretty much, and it is required for any of Arjen’s fans. It actually holds its own against Theory of Everything and is actually better than Transitus. So if this is something Arjen just did in his spare time as a whim, well done. It’s actually great. If there’s any regret at all, it’s that we don’t know much more about Arjen himself, despite being a solo album. It reveals no more about Arjen than any of his other projects. One can infer things about the storyteller from the story itself, but for his next solo offering, he might consider cracking the Ayreon mask just a little bit and giving some lyrics that reflect on the philosophy and life of Arjen Lucassen. Otherwise, great work, and we look forward to the next offering, in whatever form it may be. Be sure to check out Songs No One Will Hear on September 12.

Release Date: September 12th, 2025
Record Label: InsideOut Music
Genre: Progressive Metal

Musicians:

• Irene Jansen / Lead and backing vocals
• Koen Herfst / Drums
• Joost van den Broek / Hammond organ
• Ben Mathot / Violin
• Jeroen Goossens / Flute
• Jurriaan Westerveld / Cello
• Arjen Anthony Lucassen / Lead vocals, all other onstruments
• Floor Jansen / Vocals on “We’ll Never Know”
• Robert Soeterboek / Vocals on “Our Final Song”
• Marcela Bovio / Vocals on “Our Final Song”
• Patty Gurdy / Hurdy-Gurdy on “Our Weary Soldier”
• Michael Mills / All narrations

Songs No One Will Hear Track-list:

1. End of the World Show
2. The Clock Ticks Down
3. Goddamn Conspiracy
4. The Universe Has Other Plans
5. Shaggathon
6. We’ll Never Know
7. Dr. Slumber’s Blue Bus
8. Just Not Today
9. Our Final Song

Pre-order the album here