GTR

Ah, the great controversial entity that was GTR! I left this cd behind somewhere years ago but back then, it was one of my top picks and I was sad to have lost it. Yes, I was a foolish teenager in '87 and to me, GTR was the pinnacle of the prog/mainstream crossover. Howe and Hackett could have made a recording of cats wailing in an alley and I would have bought it. But, as it was they recorded an unbelievabley mainstream album that actually had some uniqueness to it.

Now in 2005, I've seen some of the video footage that Steve Hackett has and realized GTR still wasn't so bad. Yeah Max Bacon's wail could shatter glass (didn't he sound a lot like James Labrie of Dream Theater?) but GTR was a fair band with some great musicians. Check out the instrumentals "Sketches in the Sun" and "Hackett to Bits", those alone are worth the price of admission. Granted, this disc may be for Hackett and Howe completists and those of us who want to taste a bit of our foolish youth again, but it really isn't a bad album. Check out the videos on Hacketss web site for some good laughs at GTR too.