TILL WE HAVE FACES

Steve Hackett's Till We Have Faces can best be described as an experiment gone wrong, i.e. the "Frankenstein" of Hackett's solo career. Hackett had been on a downward spiral in terms of quality since his Cured album of 1981. Although he would turn this low point of his output around, things would continue to sit around in the mediocrity zone as he would join Steve Howe to form GTR two years after this release. After listening to Till We Have Faces, I can see why GTR turned out the way it did.

The most notable difference on this album is the use of Brazilian musicians throughout the album. He continued to have Nick Magnus on board, but drummer Ian Mosley would leave around this time to join Marillion. In fact, nearly this whole album was recorded in Brazil, while the final mix was done in London. It's an interesting combination of Brazilian and English rock. The percussionists do a delightful job. But the problem isn't with them, it's with this mediocre group of songs. They're mostly unimaginative and are amongst the most accessible material Hackett ever wrote.

The most interesting songs I found were the Duel and What's My Name. Duel was based on Steven Spielberg's first feature film (also called Duel) from 1971 about a trucker stalking a motorist. What's My Name is just strange, and that's what I like about it. After all these years, I still cannot get that What's my name? Ahhhhhhh part out of my head. Thanks a lot Steve.

Clearly only for die-hard Hackett fans and completionists. Interesting, but hardly worth looking for. Two stars.