PLEASE DON'T TOUCH!

A strange album which really demands repeated listening. Whilst Voyage garbs the attention immediately and reassures with its prog credentials, PDT challenges the listener to reassess the boundaries. Narnia seems lightweight and pop, Racing in A seems uninspired, Kim an unchallenging classical doodle (Song of the Gulls, anyone?) and the voice of Necam a mere studio techno-doodle; and the contribution made by American artists does seem to bend this album away from Hackett's trademark style. Until, that is, the warped Englishness of Carry On Up the Vicarage preceded by its seaside pier penny slot machine tableau (chilling and terrrifying - why?) starts to hint at darker themes. Once the technoflash aggression of the title track has convinced then the album as a whole starts to make sense and the various elements become more defined by nature of the contrasts. I disagree with other reviewers about the Randy Crawford track - an intriguing and successful merging of prog and soul which begged for further experimentation (though check out some of The Four Tops recordings for some surprising Prog gestures). This is an album i was ambivent about on first listening and which I have grown to love. Possibly Hackett's deepest and most emationally complex album.