MOMENTUM

Bay Of Kings constituted the beginning of Steve Hackett's career as a Classical guitarist. Momentum is the follow up to that album and these two albums (together with some future albums in the same vein) should best be seen as making up a parallel recording career, rather than as being part of Hackett's Rock output. Contrasting Bay Of Kings and Momentum with the surrounding Rock albums Highly Strung and Till We Have Faces, the radically different sides of Steve Hackett could not be clearer.

While it is very interesting and highly admirable to have such diverse musical interests and talents, I think that Steve Hackett is best when he blends all of his influences into one rather than focusing on one aspect at a time. There are many Classical guitarists in the world, and many Blues guitarists too, and Rock guitarists, etc. But what is so special about Steve for me is his ability to fuse different styles into something unique and exciting. This ability is put on hold whenever he decides to go into one single direction for a whole album like here when he goes fully into Classical music. A few years later he would make a pure Blues Rock album that I feel the same way about. His 1994 album Guitar Noir, on the other hand, is a great example of an album that shows all the different aspects of the man within the context of the same album; Rock, Pop, Blues, Jazz, Folk and Classical.

While Bay Of Kings had revisited a couple of earlier pieces (like Genesis' Horizons), Momentum is made up entirely by previously unheard material all written by Hackett himself with the exception of one traditional piece. Apart from occasional flutes by his brother John Hackett, Steve's acoustic guitar is the only ingredient of Momentum. The opening number Cavalcanti is the highlight for me with a beautiful flute part. But very soon the momentum is lost and the album cannot stay interesting for very long I'm afraid. It lacks diversity and any real distinguishing features. Even if many of the individual pieces are very nice, the album as a whole gets boring quite quickly.

Steve Hackett has a Rock career and a Classical career running parallel to each other. It is obvious which one of these is of most interest to the people on this site. Like Bay Of Kings I can recommend this album only to fans and collectors of Steve Hackett and to people with a strong special interest in Classical guitar music.

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