SPECTRAL MORNINGS

'Spectral Mornings' is the third solo studio album of Steve Hackett and was released in 1979. It was also the first album to feature Hackett's first true touring band, which brought more consistency and balance to his solo musical career. To his credit, Hackett learned from some of the mistakes made on 'Please Don't Touch', and delivered a much-improved mix of songs and instrumentals on 'Spectral Mornings', despite the undeniable quality of 'Please Don't Touch'. He exploits his strengths with progressive instrumentals, pastoral pop songs and a true healthy dose of English humor.

So, the line up on this album is Steve Hackett (vocals, guitars, Roland guitar synthesizer, koto and harmonica), John Hackett (flute and bass pedals), Peter Hicks (vocals), Nick Magnus (keyboards, Vox string thing, Novotron, harpsichord, clavinet, RMI, Fender Rhodes, mini moog, Roland string synthesizer and SH 2000), Dick Cadbury (vocals, bass, bass pedals and violin) and John Shearer (drums and percussion).

'Spectral Mornings' has eight tracks. The first track 'Every Day' is, without any doubt, one of the best tracks on the album and is also one of the best tracks ever composed by Steve Hackett. It contains good lyrics and fine guitars with a great solo on the second part of the song. This is the only song on the album that reminds me strongly the sound of the good old times of Genesis. The second track 'The Virgin And The Gypsy' is a very beautiful ballad with nice flute played by his brother John Hackett. It's a song with a simple musical structure, very calm and melodic and where Steve Hackett plays very beautiful acoustic sections. This is a song that flows gracefully from the start to the end. The third track 'The Red Flower Of Tachai Blooms Everywhere' is another beautiful instrumental track where Steve Hackett plays Koto, a traditional Japanese string musical instrument with a very typical sound. It's a very unusual Steve Hackett's song with a complete oriental sound that transports us to the traditional Japanese atmosphere. The fourth track 'Clocks - The Angel Of Mons' is another highlight on the album. Like 'Every Day', this is one of the best tracks on the album and is also one of the best tracks ever composed by Steve Hackett. This is an instrumental song dominated by powerful guitar work and with a drum solo in the end. It's a song that needs no introduction because it's a very well known instrumental track that appears on many of his live recordings. The fifth track 'The Ballad Of The Decomposing Man' (Featuring 'The Office Party')' is a completely different song from the others. This is a funny song but isn't as interesting as the rest of the album. It seems to me a song somehow misplaced from the rest of the album. Songs like this and the Steve Hackett's version of the original song of 'Lamb Lies Down On Broadway', 'Waiting Room Only' released on his studio album 'Genesis Revisited', don't add anything positive to the cohesion and the perfect balance of any album of him. The sixth track 'Lost Time In Cordoba' is a very nice acoustic piece of music composed for guitar, flute and other woodwind musical instruments. This is an excellent classical piece of music with beautiful musical moments and it's perfectly in vein with the very own Steve Hackett's musical style. The seventh track 'Tigermoth' is a very dark and strange song. This is a very sad song that speaks about war and the dead of the soldiers in it, an anti-war demonstration. Sincerely, I think this is a very good song with some nice interesting musical parts, especially with nice and lovely guitar moments. The eighth and last track is the title track 'Spectral Mornings'. It's another instrumental track. This is, in my opinion, one of the highlights on the album with 'Every Day' and 'Clocks ' The Angel Of Mons'. Here, we are in presence of about six minutes of the magnificent guitar hand work of Steve Hackett, which made of him as one of the favourite guitarists in the progressive rock music. This is a perfect way to close this magnificent album.

Conclusion: 'Spectral Mornings' is, without any doubt, a great musical work of Hackett. It's true that it isn't as good as his debut solo studio album 'Voyage Of The Acolyte', but in reality, 'Spectral Mornings' is almost as good as it is, and definitely, is better than 'Please Don't Touch'. 'Spectral Mornings' is much more mature compared with his two predecessor albums, and is also, in my opinion, the musical work where Hackett found his own sound as a solo artist and where he definitely emerges with his musical different style from his previous musical contributions for his band, Genesis. Despite 'Spectral Mornings' isn't, in my opinion, a musical work as brilliant as 'Voyage Of The Acolyte' is, it's, in reality, a much more consistent album than 'Please Don't Touch' is. However and despite 'The Ballad Of The Decomposing Man' be, for me, a little bit out of the general musical context of the rest of the album, nevertheless, is very well done, and because of that, it isn't enough to spoil the overall quality of the entire album. So, 'Spectral Mornings' remains a great album, despite the lacking of the musical perfection of 'Voyage Of The Acolyte'. However, I think it has enough consistency and quality to be considered a masterpiece and consequently be rated with 5 stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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