HIGHLY STRUNG

The 80's were a bad time for prog. During the 80's as every prog rock act either chose, or were forced to go commercial, many wouldn't survive with their careers, or band members intact. Kansas lost the violin and tried to go hair metal minus the hair, King Crimson made an attempt to get with the new wave to mixed results, Pink Floyd was now the David Gilmour show, Genesis went pop-rock with prog elements and became the Beatles of the 80s, and then there was Steve Hackett. Steve Hackett needs no introduction, so I'll cut it short. He is one of prog rock's mighty pillars, having played with Genesis throughout the 70's, and making a name for himself as a solo artist in the genre. But as the 80's rolled around, Steve decided he wanted to get with the times. Cured wound up being so 80's, you could mistake it for being generically 80's and not know that was a Steve Hackett record. If I were to sum up Highly Strung, it would be Steve's Abacab.

A bit of context here, I am a staunch Abacab defender. I may not have grown up with Genesis in the 70's, as I was born in 1986, but even still, I can appreciate all eras of Genesis. My favorite Genesis albums are from the 70's, when Steve Hackett was with the band. So when I see comments like "Steve never sold out," or "we don't talk about 80's Hackett," I will. Highly Strung is by no means a terrible album. It's just that in the time I spent listening to it, I couldn't help but feel there's a great idea here, but something is missing. What could possibly be missing that could elevate this? Let's find out.

The first song off the album is Camino Royale, the only song off this album that has stuck around in Steve's setlist. I can see why he likes to keep this one around. Steve has found a way to make the 80's work in his favor on this one, and I'll admit, that hook gets stuck in your head. So what's missing here? Well, honestly a stronger guitar solo is missing. If Steve had just added a few more minutes during the instrumental break, this would have been fantastic. During the live shows, and when this song appears on Revisited, it seems Steve has gone back and extended the break with a guitar solo, as well as a sax, giving the song more of a finished feel. Honestly, I feel like this should have been a single. It could have charted, but we're not off to a bad start though.

Up next is Cell 151, which became a minor hit in the UK. Great! Steve got some minor commercial success with this song. As I listened to the instrumental, and took a deep listen to Hackett's singing, I couldn't help but feel like this could have been a Genesis song. This song needs a stronger singer than Hackett, and honestly, I could see Phil singing this one if Steve had chosen to stick around. The song ends with a jam session, much like how Abacab ends with a jam session. Though I feel like this jam session is a bit weaker, the song in its entirety is not at all bad, it's not even mid. It's a solid song overall.

We have an instrumental break in Always Somewhere Else. One of the things I immediately took note of listening to this is that I almost thought I could hear a bit of Rush's Tom Sawyer in it. It's not one of Hackett's stronger instrumentals, but it fits the 80's sound aesthetic to a T. It's fine, and that's all it needs to be.

Next is Walking Through Walls. A song that is so 80's, it feels like Steve shouldn't be playing it. It's an upbeat dance tune where Steve counts to 4, and in the re-issue, even has a dance mix of this song. Yet I can't help but love it. This instantly dated song is so cheesy, that Hackett just owns it. It's way out of his style, in the same way Who Dunnit was for Genesis, but unlike that song, Walking Through Walls is catchy as hell for all the right reasons.

Sadly, I can't say the same for Give It Away. Give It Away, though a good song, could easily be mistaken for any song in the 80's. It's another one of those generic as hell 80's tunes you forgot existed. If I had to think of somebody to have on this song, it would be 38 Special. This sounds like a 38 Special song, right down to the chorus. Maybe if the guitar did more work than the synth, I'd have a different opinion on this one. And that's an issue I have with this album, is the synth is at times doing a little too much work. Hackett's a guitar guy, he should be trying to take his brand of style into the 80's, rather than the 80's dictating his sound entirely.

Weightless is a nice, summer breeze prog song... we can call it... yacht prog? The song doesn't have a whole lot going for it, but it's a nice tune for relaxing considering the hard hitting songs we got early on. But again, this doesn't feel like a Steve Hackett song. The synth, once again, is the backbone of this track. It almost feels like it was left on the cutting room floor of Cured. You'll also notice I haven't commented too much about Steve's singing on this album, and that's because I find it serviceable. Not great, nothing to write home about, but also not terrible. It's not like he's going to be worse on the next album. Right?

We have another instrumental in Group Therapy, the proggiest song on the whole album. And surprise, it's an instrumental. But, this one is actually fairly strong. It's the closest it comes to figuring out a way for Steve's style of prog to fit into the 80's compared to the rest of the album which feels like Steve trying to go commercial. It's fine.

Then we have India Rubber Man which I can only describe as a weird choice of song. It's a soft, melodramatic tune. Hackett's stretching his singing, trying to make something of it. To some it's a nice, touching heartfelt song, to others it's basically just album filler. I would say it did nothing for me, but I'm going to revisit this later.

And we come to an end with Hackett To Pieces, a pseudo-bookending callback to Camino Royale. It's fine. But after everything I just went through, I had to go back and process this album's lyrics. I spent a good amount of time analyzing everything, and I could not believe the conclusion I reached.

Steve Hackett just sounds absolutely miserable. I've seen what happens when artists get into creative funks, and Steve is definitely going through one with this album. The most blatant example in this is Give It Away, where Steve mentions "when you lose your self expression, it's time to change direction." Things made a lot of sense when I actually did research on this album and found that The "Famous" Charisma Label was butting heads with Steve Hackett and trying to take control of the album. The end result is a record that is completely disjointed, and also the creative meltdown of a musician who's just been told they can't do what they want. Me personally, I think it's the only 80's Hackett album worth revisiting. While it's a massive step up from Cured, primarily because Steve isn't working against a drum machine, it suffers from Hackett himself being highly strung. Maybe if Charisma didn't get in the way, this could have worked out for them. Unfortunately, they didn't want to let him cook, and this is the result.