PLEASE DON'T TOUCH!

This is Steve's first solo album after leaving Genesis and his second over all. It reminds me greatly of Peter Gabriel's contemporary first solo album in that it seems to throw every style he could think of into a great big pot and mix it around to see what sticks. The results, like on Gabriel's album, are diverse and not always succesful. However, this album tends to hold together better than Peter's because the basic sound is usually unified by instrumentation. Peter's solo album seemed to use different instrumentation and styles on each track, and while that's impressive, it was never repeated, much like with Steve and this album. It can, therefore, be seen as kind of a stunt or if you want to be more kind an experiment. After all, just because Steve Hacket can write a soul ballad doesn't mean he's at all good at it....

Anyways, the good news is that the good music outweighs the bad. Strong songs beat out bad ones. Not much to say about this one, really.