THE CIRCUS AND THE NIGHTWHALE

Well, this is probably the best album that Steve Hackett has released in the last fifteen years. Not that there's anything wrong with the others that were released in that time. By no means are those releases sub par in any way. I've got most of them. It's just that The Circus And The Nightwhale tops them all for me. I've got the transparent red vinyl issue of the album and its been manufactured perfectly, with no pops or crackles. The liner notes and inner lyrics booklet command repeated reading because its all just really very interesting. I've listened to the album more than a couple of times now (back to back some of those times) and will do so many more times. It has just drawn me in. What SH has done here is put together a very coherent concept album, composed of 13 tracks of various lengths. But the genius here is that each track can also quite easily stand on its own two feet, independent of all the others. It's a masterful achievement. I'll be seeing SH live, with his band later in the year in Milan, almost right at the end of his tour and I sincerely hope he plays the entire thing! As far as I'm concerned, this is an essential addition to any prog collection so I just have to award it 5 stars.