DARKTOWN

Omegus Metallicus Quirky, entertaining and light-hearted with a great bass part. Not Hackett's best, but not bad at all.

Darktown A dark, moving tune with particularly excellent sax and keyboard parts. The vocals are appropriate. A serious, progressive song with deliberate, meaningful lyrics.

Man Overboard An acoustic-based song with a choral part that works quite well and subtly with the rest of the music.

The Golden Age Of Steam Not my favourite, but nonetheless very good.

Days of Long Ago Despite the acoustic theme, it's fairly pathetic. The vocals sound generic, the lyrics are brainless, I try to ignore the vocals and listen to the music. I don't think it's particularly bad as typical ballads go, but I don't like those.

Dreaming With Open Eyes Not my favourite. The vocals are vaguely similar to the few lines on TWTS's The Silk Road, but don't work nearly as well. I find the music, good, but a bit aimless. Still not a weak track, with an interesting charm.

Twice Round The Sun Wow. A meaningful, deliberate, guitar-dominated piece. I love it. A real modern instrumental, with both quieter and louder (heavier seems inappropriate) moments of equal excellence.

Rise Again Simply not a style I like, so I can't really comment on the merits of the music.

Jane Austen's Door A charming, ironic piece. At the same time condemning and supportive. Probably my favourite 'soft' track from the album.

Darktown Riot I'm not too keen on the opening, but as a concept piece, that's 100% forgivable. Essentially a continuation of Darktown. Quite good as a heavier oddball tune, and has grown on me.

In Memoriam A good use of the choir and Hackett's hollowed-out spoken lines (which remind me of [i]Dire Straits[/i] Private Investigations). It does go on a bit longer than it needs to, but that doesn't really damage it. A nice conclusion.

A 7/10. Some very good moments, but not as focussed, confident or impressive as TWTS, and containing a few let-downs. The use of the choir is very strong. Worth getting for the high points. I'm glad that Hackett had the taste not to make a whole concept album, but a decent album with a few pieces around a particular concept.

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