OUT OF THE TUNNEL'S MOUTH

Firstly, you'll need to type in 'Out of the tunnel's mouth' on Google to begin the process of getting one. The album basically represents an 'anthology' sound-wise of all that Hackett has previously done, except maybe the first and last tracks, but then 'Fire on the moon' and 'Last train to Istanbul' have a familiar quality to them. It sums up Hackett's post-Genesis career, where the ideas don't add up to as much as they possibly should. The sound quality is faultless, but unless you wish to hear more of what you already have heard before, then don't look to be inspired. 2 stars would suggest that it is bad. It's not bad, just uninspired. If you haven't got it, then buy Nick Magnus' 'Hexameron' instead. Here you will hear Steve at his very best.

It felt as though Steve Hackett could do no wrong after the amazing performance of songwriting and instrumental work on Wild Orchids. After three great consecutive rock releases, starting with Darktown, Steve has improved his album writing abilities. Of course that wasn't hard to do considering some of his releases during the '80s. But Steve went above all that and actually wrote and performed material that I consider to be just as good as his his '70s albums which isn't something most progressive rock icons can achieve.

So what's wrong with his new release? Well, not much has really changed and Steve goes through his usual routines. Although this time the song quality is not up to the highlights featured on Darktown and especially Wild Orchids. In a way, the mere fact that Steve decides to hold his ground and not progress even further in his musical journey is questionable to me.

I would have been more than satisfied if this album offered just a single track worthy of a honorable mention. This is unfortunately not the case and my hopes for a future improvement from our favorite guitarist has now started to fade.

**** star songs: Fire On The Moon (6:11) Nomads (4:31) Emerald And Ash (8:59) Tubehead (3:36) Last Train To Istanbul (5:56)

*** star songs: Sleepers (8:50) Ghost In The Glass (2:59) Still Waters (4:35)

Total rating: 3,64

During a time of great personal and professional turmoil, the details of which I will not go into, Steve has kept very busy, playing gigs with his own band and Djabe and doing music for his new solo album, as well as collaborating with the likes of Chris Squire for the highly anticipated Squackett album.

Steve has always been able to use an impressive cast of musicians on his solo albums (Steve Walsh, Phil Ehart, Richie Havens ? to name just a few) and this album continues in this tradition. This time we hear such legends at work as Chris Squire (Yes), Anthony Phillips (his predecessor at Genesis), Ferenc Kovacs from Djabe and of course his brother John (not the one from Lamb Lies Down on Broadway).

The album's title is very apt. It seems as if there's a whole new surge of energy in the music, as if Steve had been wandering in the dark for many years. His previous efforts have been good to excellent, but this is even a step further. Everything clicks for Steve here. The compositions are dramatic, the melodies sometimes hauntingly beautiful, while at other times rocking. This really has all of his best characteristics ? his self-reflective and melancholic side, as well as his more dynamic rock face. But most of all the music shines with a new life and vibrancy that has been missing to some degree for some time now.

The album opens with a cracker. "Fire" is one of Steve's most heartfelt songs. The beginning is played with a musical box effect and Steve's tender vocals on top. This is contrasted by a grand chorus without vocals but it's so mesmerising that you can't help but feel shivers down your spine. The song is structurally fairly standard, however Steve does mix it up with a few of his moving guitar solos.

"Nomads" kicks off with some typically beautiful instrumental classical guitar work with Steve's vocal added a few lines into the song. After a few choruses we hear a nice flamenco solo on the classical, which soon transforms into an instrumental progressive rock workout on the electric guitar.

"Emerald and Ash" is one of Steve's longest compositions, but it remains interesting throughout due to its lush arrangements and structure. The first part is played on the acoustic guitar (I think Anthony Phillips adds some 12-string lines during the chorus) and is slightly reminiscent of "Virgin and the Gypsy" from the Spectral Mornings record and just as lovely (if not more). We are in for a turn during the second segment, where we hear some blistering instrumental rock.

"Tubehead" is a fast-paced instrumental where Steve is able to show us that he's not only a master of creating great atmospheres and touching melodies, but that he's got some chops on him as well. This won't go down as one of his best instrumentals because it doesn't have any particularly great melodies, it merely serves to stretch Steve's muscles and to showcase his rock side. This should work really well in a live setting though. It could really get the blood pumping as a show opener.

"Sleepers" also begins with an instrumental section on the classical guitar. It reminds me of "Hairless Heart", one of Steve's tremendous contributions on the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album when he was still in Genesis. After the nice introduction, Steve continues acoustically, but adds vocals to the mix. The last segment is again full of rock goodness (Do I se a pattern emerging?). The man certainly has a flair for the dramatic as he knows how to switch to the heavier parts at exactly the right time. We also hear some nice backing vocal work by Amanda and Jo Lehmann towards the end of the composition.

"Ghost" is an instrumental which is played on classical guitar at first (and is also classical in nature), but it takes on a blues tinge during the second segment of the composition.

So you see, the former Genesis guitarist hasn't forgotten the blues. And to prove this he continues with the blues feeling on the next track as well. There's some very soulful singing from Steve and some fine female accompanying vocals, which create a gospel atmosphere. To end a great album we have "Last Train to Istanbul", a composition with a very distinct eastern/Arabic flavour and with an air of mystery throughout it, as befits a composition with an eastern influence. We hear some nice solos from Ferenc Kovacs on violin, Rob Townsend on saxophone and John Hackett on flute. Steve also uses the sitar sound to make the Arabic feeling even more genuine. The legendary guitarist provides us with some of the best musical moments in his entire career on this effort. The chorus on "Fire" is absolutely gorgeous, as is the one on "Emerald". His guitar solos are extremely fluent and fit the themes, while the transitions from the slower parts on classical or acoustic guitar to the faster rock segments are very well crafted and flawless.

On a more negative note, I wish Steve wouldn't overproduce his albums as much as he has done in the recent years. This album unfortunately keeps this trend going and the biggest effect is felt during Steve's vocal lines, which occasionally appear processed and thus artificial. This has been the case for quite a number of years and while not a major issue, it's still a slight annoyance (and musical critics always have to find something to complain about).

Whatever happened in Steve's personal and private life, he has come out of it all the better. He has taken the emotions from his experiences and put them into his compositions. But we don't hear any anger or resentment in these songs, only new hope, joy and a vision of a bright future for him. Out of the Tunnel's Mouth might just be his best album for a very long while and that's saying a lot because his recent material has been anything but poor. But this album simply displays some newfound energy and enthusiasm. Stylistically, we don't get anything particularly new, but in terms of great compositions, melodies and guitar solos, this is an inspired effort and it bodes well for Steve's future releases.

"Long ago with all the dreamers, I fell into her emerald spell."

Steve Hackett's been on a bit of roll when it comes to his progressive rock output in the past ten years or so, as well as making some fine classical oriented albums. Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth offers up a fine set of prog. To the extent that there is a theme here in the songs, it's about dreams. Roger King confesses in the liner notes that the album was constructed on a computer. But ultimately a quality outcome is dependent on the musicians. Steve's never been one to go it alone on his progressive rock albums and has many of the usual musical suspects working with him, some new names to me, and even Anthony Phillips and Chris Squire are guesting on a couple of tracks each.

An eclectic mix of mellow and heavier tracks. The only disappointment here for me is that a deluxe edition wasn't released.

This is yet again another top-notch album from Steve, who has cons istently produced a fine collection of eclectic and imaginitive albums over the last 11 years (since1999's Dark town).

Whilst past albums from Steve have mixed tracks of different styles and genres, this album goes one step further by mixing styles within the same track on some of the tracks in this album. This was done on Steve's last studio album "Wild Orchids" with the track "Down Street", but this experiment is practiced more so on this album. The best examples of this are "Emerald and Ash", and the flamenco influenced "Nomads".

The production quality is top class, and indicates the advance of technology in recording techniques given that the whole album was recorded in Steve's own living room without the use of conventional recording studio equipment.

There is not a poor track on this album, which although shorter than his last few studio albums, is just as melodic, powerful and rousing.

The first ever release on Steve's own Wolfworks label. Catalog Number: WWCD001

Steve Hackett has really developed his own distinctive musical style over the last 30 years. But it is in more recent years with albums such as Guitar Noir, Darktown, To Watch The Storms, Wild Orchids and the present one that he really has found (or rediscovered?) his very own musical niche, blending and often "fusing" influences from Rock, Blues, Jazz as well as Classical, Folk and World music in his own distinctive and "progressive" way. As most of you will know, Steve has also made several purely Classical albums and also a pure Blues Rock album, but it is when he fuses his many different influences together that he makes the best and most interesting music, in my opinion. And this is (partly) just what he does on Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth.

Personally, I particularly like Hackett's darkest albums like Defector, Guitar Noir and To Watch The Storms. The present album follows in that same tradition and it is indeed another great album in typical Hackett fashion. The opener Fire On The Moon would have fitted perfectly on To Watch The Storms, for example. Still, Steve is not just walking down a well trodden path here; he also makes interesting detours to previously undiscovered places (by him, anyway). On Nomads and Last Train From Istanbul, he draws inspiration from Spanish and Turkish Folk music respectively to great effect. These two are probably my favourite tracks from this album.

Emerald And Ash and Sleepers are the two longest tracks of the album with a running time of almost nine minutes each and as such these are perhaps the more progressive songs. They blend quiet acoustic passages with distinctive outbursts of wild electric guitar and some quite heavy riffs! Steve has always had a very distinctive and unique guitar sound that he developed already during his years in Genesis in the 70's. In the 80's and 90's he really grew as a vocalist and developed a distinctive and appealing singing voice too and on these songs his vocals are stronger than ever. In the new millennium he has grown as songwriter and he is really as great now as he ever was in all of these respects.

Tubehead and Ghosts In The Glass are instrumentals and as such they are almost each other's opposites. The former being a quite loud number filled with guitar pyrotechnics and the latter a soothing piece that starts out as a Classical piece but ends with a floating electric guitar solo. My least favourite track is the Blues rocker Still Waters, but even this one is more than decent. As a whole, Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth constitutes a great mix between electric and acoustic passages and between modern and 'classic' sounds. There is also a very good mix between up tempo tracks and ballads and between vocal and instrumental tracks and passages.

Steve's backing band remains largely the same here with Roger King (with whom Steve has developed a close professional relationship in recent years and who also co-produces the album with Steve) on keyboards, Rob Townsend on soprano saxophone and Steve's (almost) ever present brother John on flutes. There is no drummer listed in the credits but there are drums on this album and I suppose it is Gary O'Toole playing? In addition there are some other familiar faces guesting on the album. Steve has often worked with other great artists throughout his long career. In addition to past, present and future members of his old group, he has worked with such Prog greats as Steve Howe, Brian May, John Wetton and Ian McDonald among many others. More recently he has worked with Yes bass player Chris Squire and he is one of the guests on some tracks on this album. Also Anthony Phillips (the guy Steve replaced in Genesis after the Trespass album) appears here on 12 string guitar as well as Ferenc Kovacs from Hungarian Jazz/World Fusion band Djabe with whom Steve also has worked recently both live and in the studio. Kovacs adds some very nice violin. There are also some tasteful female backing vocals on some tracks.

Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth is the very first release on his own new label Wolfworks (named after a track from his previous Rock album, Wild Orchids). It is, in a way, a "home production" and it was recorded and produced in Steve's own studio. But there is no doubt about the fact that this is a very professional production. The only problem I have with this being released on such a small and independent label is that it was quite hard to find. I ordered it from Steve's official home page (together with the Djabe DVD on which Steve appears). Maybe it would reach a bigger audience on a major label? But then there would not be the same creative freedom, I suppose.

The only thing I found a little disappointing is the cover art which depicts Steve walking out of a large cloud of steam from a steam train with his guitar case in hand. Looking at the cover makes me think that Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth is a follow up to his 1994 Blues Rock album, Blues With A Feeling. Which it thankfully isn't (despite some bluesy moments)!

Highly recommended in addition to Steve's other recent Rock albums

What can I add- regarding such a legendary guitarist like Steve Hackett? During his participation at Summer Festival in Lugano in July 2009 -He played with a strong impact and a great feeling along with the Swiss crowd too- and that particular gig let me think of the renewed sessions inside his own Recording Studio!! Instead as usual here you find a traditional style, in the vein of some classic successful rock albums such as "Watch the storms" or "Defector" (listen to the opener "Fire On The Moon"), but without forgetting his new exploration into new music territories (a sort of Spanish and ethnic folk, by thinking of the last track)...Anyway, talking about the first songs and in particular "Nomads", you can already understand and have a small "sampling" of his new music direction, which is well supported by Anthony Phillips with a 12-string guitar (obviously in the most "sensible" and acoustic parts); but his typical style is the main part of the whole work. Instead Chris Squire, regarding the bass guitar and Ferenc Kovacs at the violin represent a remarkable choice (the first one as an important member of Yes and the second one as for his strong presence inside an ensemble of World Music, called Djabe!!)...Moreover his vocalism is usually his unique defect within a few solo albums- while here it's offset by the female vocals by Amanda Lehman, as well as the backing vocals by Jo Lehman, being good...then regard John Hackett at the flute, which is able to keep on maintaining the perfect balance between the acoustic parts and those electric ones, when the electric guitar is not present and- at the end-such an important feature makes the present album well worth checking out at least (even though I don' t like his rock-blues style very much- like inside his previous album, but it's a minor defect)...ok, it's not as much important as for instance "Spectral Mornings", but a good product to buy after all!!...

Final score: between three and four stars- cause the present work is often enriched by means of previous unreleased and already listened to- stuff (already played I mean, during his recent concerts all over Europe).

This is a difficult album to judge. On the one hand, the musicianship and even the vocals (for Steve Hackett) are really good, and the sound of his classical guitar whenever it appears is simply marvelous. Where the album falls incredibly short, however, is in the composition department. Almost all of them are weak, with terrible transitions, or a downright sound tacky throughout. The lineup, boasting the mighty Chris Squire and Hackett's more pastoral predecessor Anthony Phillips, is incredibly exciting, but sadly the pieces themselves are too diverse, too unconvincing in many places, and too underwhelming.

"Fire on the Moon" Beginning with a sleepy, lullaby-like introduction, the first piece suddenly takes on a much larger sound that brings things back to where they started. The music alternates in this fashion, with Hackett's very reserved singing during the verses. As one might expect, however, the lead guitar at the end is the highlight.

"Nomads" The second piece is a virtuosic classical guitar workout initially, which turns into a easy-listening song, quite like Sting's later music. It adopts a feverish Mediterranean flavor before launching into an electric guitar solo backed up by the celebrated 1970s Hackett sound.

"Emerald and Ash" Maintaining that exotic flair and sultry, Sting-like aroma, the first half of the track is gentle and pleasant music that eventually culminates in an unsuited transitional phase that turns into heavier and completely unrelated music to serve as the foundation for a screeching and astringent guitar solo.

"Tubehead" Rapid bass and drums make for an upbeat rocking playground for Hackett to exercise his fingers. In many places it sounds like a big mess of effects and reverb.

"Sleepers" The second long one on the album begins with another classical piece and synthetic textures in the background. The second half is, of course, radically different from what came before, involving wild guitar runs, and this time a much heavier wall of background sound.

"Ghost in the Glass" Sweet and tender classical guitar playing make up the beginning of the piece. Once again, non-contextual and poorly transitioned electric guitar rips it's way in.

"Still Waters" Unlike a certain song with a certain similar title, this one is a bluesy roadhouse number with a female-led refrain, a slide guitar solo, and some tapping- very unlike what I expected, given the rest of the album, and overall extremely cheesy, and not my thing at all.

"Last Train to Istanbul" Inviting the Mediterranean flavor back, this piece has woodwinds, exotic percussion, and electric guitars performing a variety of functions. The singing isn't bad, but again I cannot help but think of the several other artists who have been doing this very thing for many years now, and better (like Sting). The authenticity doesn't run deep, and the artificiality of it all is hard to push through, especially as this track comes on the heels of "Still Waters."

I am not a big fan of Genesis, and I am not a big fan of Steve Hackett solo works. During his long solo releases collection I heard a few moments only I could really enjoy. But from other hand, I agree Steve is very professional musician, and very experienced one.

This album is quite good his work, is as usual you're not searching on real progressive rock there. Eclectic mix of Spanish guitar, nostalgic ballads, heavier, but ordinary pieces, mellow songs, etc. Happily this time everything is prepared with more or less prog arrangements, so I believe this album could attract many lovers of melodic sentimental pop-rock with tasty orchestration.

Listener will hardly find there even a gram of new sound, but I believe such albums have a different targets. There are many of elder fans who are happy to remember their young times, Genesis on the top of their career, and when drinking good wine on the terrace in the late summer evening just listen to one of their hero's fresh release. Pleasant and comfortable. And even still slightly progressive.

I believe this album is really good release for such public though...

My rating is 2,5,rounded to 3.

Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth" is in the vein of the latest albums from Steve Hackett. An album with the usual ups (instrumental parts) and downs (vocal parts) of Hacketts's albums; but still pleasant to listen. The moods are varied, melancholic, sometimes darker. The acoustic guitar is present on the quiet moment while the electric one may arise violently or for lyrical solos at any time. Oriental and Hispanic influences music here and there give a nice "world music touch" to the album. The best tracks for me are "Fire On The Moon" and "Sleepers". Emerald and Ashes is great track too despite its brutal change in the middle (but hey its call Emerald and Ashes?). The only very bad track for me is the bluesy "Still Water". Again a pleasant album, easy to listen as well, and short enough with no "filler" tracks.

3 stars: Good, but non-essential

In an interview focused on the release of this album, STEVE HACKETT described it as a "series of aural ambushes". It is therefore not surprising that the album be judged on the effectiveness of the clearly deliberate shifts within and between tracks on "Out of the Tunnel's Mouth".

I am not an artist but I think I understand one's need to stay fresh and to be reborn into new forms of expression. No other member of the GENESIS extended family has lived this philosophy to this degree. Unfortunately, to come forth and say so, as Mr Hackett implied in the interview, smacks of contrivance, even if not to the same degree as 90% of PETER GABRIEL's own solo material. But then Hackett has always had the advantage of a lucid classical instinct, melodic wisdom encroaching on genius, and virtuosity across the fretted diaspora. He has even figured out how to incorporate his increasingly impassive voice to utmost effect. So it's no surprise that this album is best when he combines all four strengths at once rather than doling out a disjointed minute to each.

Two of the biggest highlights come straight away, the contrast of "Fire on the Moon's" pregnant spaced out verses and mountainous wordless choruses being utterly convincing (although I have to say that it is really meant to be seen live), while "Nomads" provides an even smoother transition between delicate classical guitar and lead guitar licks with an unlikely emotional vocal section bridging them delicately. "Sleepers" also shifts from gentle acoustic to wailing rather well before ending peacefully. It is notable for surprisingly strong vocals, which appear to be from Steve himself albeit ably backed up.

Elsewhere, the tunes alternate between good ("Last Train to Instanbul") and mediocre ("Tubehead", "Still Waters"), or both at once (the failed suite "Emerald and Ash"). Technique tends to obliterate any aspect of thematic strength there might have been on these also-rans, and even relatively enjoyable passages leave us behind with a vague sense of lost opportunity and personal inadequacy.

Like many HACKETT albums, this is simultaneously somewhat satisfying and wanting, but I have the utmost respect for this man whose main weakness is that he is too emphatically progressive for his own good. OK he is not that great a composer either. He might not represent the light at the end of the tunnel, but at least he consistently helps us find our way out.

Hackett continues his string of strong post-millennium studio efforts.

I had the pleasure and good fortune of attending a Steve Hackett performance at the 2010 High Voltage Festival (Prog Stage), and at the time I did not realise that he had recently released a new studio album, as I was mostly only aware of the four first albums Hackett had done. As part of the set he performed "Fire On The Moon" and (part of) "Sleepers", and I was compelled to purchase a copy of this CD on the strength of these two tracks; I was not dissapointed.

"Fire On The Moon" is a fantastic opening track, one of which is constantly being replayed by myself thanks to the fact that the lyrics keep repeating in my brain. "I feel like I've been the finest fool..." My only critisism is that I haven't the faintest idea why Hackett employed Chris Squire to play bass on this track, as is is extremely straightforward chugging which could very easily done by anyone. Perplexing.

The above mentioned opener along with "Emerald and Ash" and "Sleepers" would appear to be the main peices of this album as they are three solid slices of prog that satisfyingly cover a dynamic range from soft to bombastic. The other tracks are no filler, although it may be that the mix of styles evident here might make the listener think that there are if they are not a fan of the slow blues type music in "Still Waters" or the feux eastern stylings in "Last Train to Istambul". The two instrumentals, "Tubehead" and "Ghost in the Glass" are well crafted in their abandon and slickness, respectively, and "Nomads" is the perfect gentle song to follow up the excellent opening track.

Since that performance of Hackett's at the High Voltage festival I have purchased Darktown, To Watch The Storms and Wild Orchids to complete what I have begun to think of as Hackett's second great quadrilogy (I've little intention of getting any of Hacketts' albums between Defector an Darktown, based on the tracks I've heard of that period, not to mention GTR), and I find it hard to pick a favourite, but OotTM is definatly no slouch, very accessable whilst also being subtly complex, and is highly recommended to music fans who posess varying tastes.

This album may be one of Steve's strongest yet, also featuring a short guest appearance from Chris Squire. It is every bit as complete as the albums from his most popular era (Please Don't Touch - Defector) and shows that some musicians really do improve with age. Here Steve's guitar playing reaches soaring emotional heights in the song Fire On The Moon, a song in a Pink Floyd influenced style. It also includes some world influences in songs like Emerald and Ash and Last Train to Istanbul with middle- eastern style melodies and Steve getting incredibly innovative noises out of his guitar. One of the highlights of the album is the track Nomads, which is an out and out Flamenco guitar track featuring brilliant playing on both Spanish and Electric guitar and energetic rhythm playing in the latter part of the song. Sleepers is also a fantastically strong track with Spanish guitar playing a very progressive instrumental section and a fantastically beautiful and emotional melody which drives the song and brings back memories of classic Genesis songs. Still Waters is an interesting blues track once again featuring unusual and innovative guitar sounds from Steve's incredible Fernandez guitar.

For any classic prog fan this is the must buy album of the last decade. A prog legend making music every bit as strong as he was making 30 years ago yet still remaining fresh, this album really can please anybody whether you're looking for classic prog or innovation this has both.

Steve Hackett's newest symphonic progressive rock albums may be one of his best. The music here is basically a terrific amalgamation of his entire careers' work, and it all works so wonderfully together and still seems fresh after all these years. Some of the tracks create powerful symphonic and almost new-aged dream soundscapes (Fire on the Moon), some are Mediterranean/Spanish influenced songs with beautiful classical guitar (Nomads, Sleepers, Ghosts in the Grass), some are slighly folk influenced (Emerald and Ash), some rock pretty hard and are reminiscent of work by Joe Satriani (Tubehead, Still Waters), and "Last Train to Istanbul" is a very well executed world music influenced track. With such variations in style present in only 8 tracks, it seems like the album shouldn't flow, but it definitely does. It all flows perfectly from one song to the next, although there is no seamless effect bridging them together as a whole suite (which is a good thing). Of course, all these songs have great progressions within themselves and are all very enlightening.

I definitely would suggest this to any Steve Hackett fan, because of the wonderful variety present on this album. Highly recommended.

I am by no means an expert on Steve Hackett's solo outputs. I am off course a big fan of what he did in Genesis.

This album was released last year and got a lot of attention from everybody but me. And to be fair, this album is not without it's qualities. Steve Hackett has most certainly escaped from the 1970s and ventured out of the tunnel this century. Hence the sound which is very contemporary and is harvesting from a wide area of the last two decades of trends and styles. You find world music here, some symphonic prog, new age, nu-pop, lounge, prog metal and jazz. In other words, this is a very modern sounding album. The long list of contributor is also dragging this album in all directions. This album therefore feels like a family photo-album with everything from pictures of daddy's car to childrens parties to nature photographs from the beach to the highest mountains. I call this a lack of focus though. The only coherent piece here is Steve's guitar. And that is well used here.

The quality is good but nothing more. I am missing a bit more focus and I am also missing some great melodies. And that is the bottom line. An xtra half point is given to Last Train To Istanbul where Steve has got something great going. Besides of that, this album is not floating my boat.

3.5 stars

Steve Hackett´s latest studio offering follows the sane pattern of most of his latter day solo effords: great musicanship, interesting arrangements, a wide pallette of sounds and almost no focus. I´ll have to accept that he decided not to repeat himself and play the way he used to on Genesis or in his early solo stuff. So expect very little from what he did best: those long, beautful and flowing solos. Composition wise, he still struggles to do something differente every time, but clearly it all results the same: a bunch of non related songs put together. Some good, some not that good.

Highlghts? Nomads, definitly. Great spanish flavoured guitar at the beginnning, fine electric guitar on the second part. With a little extra instrumental sections and a more creative arrangement it could be a true prog classic. Emerald And Ash starts very well too, but the weird, dissonant second part ruins the excellent beginning. And so it goes: nothing really bad, but nothing excellent either. His forays into world music like the closing track Last Train to Istambul sound strained and lacking power.

So in the end, a good overall album. Pleasant most of the time, but not exciting at all. Call me old fashioned or nostalgic, but do I miss his trademark solos of the past.

3 stars.

This is the point where Steve's late-period resurgence went beyond a nice story and became a little terrifying. To Watch the Storms and Wild Orchids (and to a limited extent Dark Town) had been very nice additions to Hackett's catalogue, but they were just that: nice additions to a career whose center of relevancy still ultimately belonged to a handful of albums from the late 70s and early 80s. This album, and its eventual successor (Beyond the Shrouded Horizon), managed to completely rewrite the general arc of Steve's career; rather than following a path marked by an early prime, a shift downward and a nice shift upward at the end, Steve's career now had to be viewed as having two distinct primes, roughly 30 years apart. On here, and on Horizon, much of the material feels central to Steve's legacy, and while there are enough small details on each to keep me from giving them even higher grades, they are both essential albums for anybody who considers themselves a Hackett fan.

The first two songs on here have to be numbered among the best songs Hackett ever did, and oddly enough they're also the two where Yes bassist Chris Squire makes a contribution (he doesn't make his presence obvious, but there's a lot of power in the bass playing on these tracks). "Fire on the Moon" is a distillation of everything great about this era in Hackett's career; the verse melody is quiet but intense, growing out of a quiet music box melody (he used a similar trick to start off Wild Orchids, but it's more effective here), the "chorus" is huge and anthemic with wordless harmonies, and the two extended instrumental passages are led by monumental guitar passages that each have their own distinct personality and vibe. "Nomads," then, is Steve revisiting his fondness for middle- Eastern music, and it really comes across as the kind of song that "The Gulf" could have been if it hadn't gotten too stuck on its typically 80s synths. Much like with "Moon," the melody is a big ball of tension, reaching points of near ecstasy every time the "It's a cry from the heart, it's a crying soul" line pops up, and the climactic instrumental passage, growing out of a frantic acoustic part into a searing electric part, is sheer bliss to my ears. The final repetition of "It's a cry from the heart" might be somewhat predictable, but it's soooo necessary and satisfying.

Naturally, the album can't quite hold onto this level of enjoyment and intensity throughout, but it holds a pretty decent level nonetheless. "Emerald and Ash" really shouldn't be nine minutes long; the ballad portion (the "Emerald," I suppose) and the noisy rocker portion (the "Ash," I suppose) don't fit well together, certainly not as well as "The Fundamentals of Brainwashing" and "Howl" did. Still, I quite like the "Emerald" portion, which is awfully dark and moody for a track whose first lyric is "Sugarplum fairies on parade." The following instrumental "Tubehead" is basically just a noisy shredfest (with pounding up-tempo bass pushing it forward), and I kinda feel like its effect is muted a bit by coming right after the "Ash" portion, but it's definitely a lot of fun.

As far as multi-part epics go, "Sleepers" is much more impressive than "Emerald and Ash." The lengthy acoustic introduction gives way to an unsettlingly calm (and surprisingly memorable) verse melody, which in turn gives way to an intense darker melody (featuring a great lyric in one stanza: "Surveillance camera in the sky/Big big brother telling you why/Too many saviours on my cross/Might as well worship the Wizard of Oz"), which in turn gives way to an anthemic climax, culminating in the "All the sleepers send you their dreams" repeated line. If this track isn't in the top tier of Hackett tracks, then it's knocking on the door.

The album finishes quite strong as well. "Ghost in the Glass" makes the transition from moody acoustic instrumental to moody electric instrumental impeccably; "Still Waters" is a great pounding mid-tempo jazzy-gospel rocker that reminds me a lot of the little I've heard of Spiritualized; and the closing "Last Train to Istanbul," as tempting as it might be to call it an inferior little brother of "Nomads," does pseudo-ethnic music proud, from the great percussion to the flow of strings into flute and saxophone, and it's a great way to close things off.

If there's anything significantly to the album's detriment, aside from the "Emerald and Ash" and "Tubehead" pairing (both tracks are plenty enjoyable, but in a more hollow way than I prefer), it's that the album, for all of the interesting things that happen on it, doesn't really show much in the way of Steve stretching himself; even the best ideas feel mostly like a refinement of ideas that had come on earlier albums. Still, that's a relatively minor ding, and it's one that I don't really think about when I'm listening to it. If you like rock music that's at all artsy (not just Hackett) you need to hear this album.

PS: The 2010 2-CD special edition is worth mentioning, even if the additional material doesn't factor into the rating. Around this time, Steve started to re-embrace his past in his live performances, and this disc features live performances of "Blood on the Rooftops" (!!), "A Tower Struck Down," "Firth of Fifth" and "Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974" (the Genesis tracks feature drummer Gary O'Toole on vocals). The three Genesis tracks would later appear on Live Rails, but it's still a lot of fun to have additional versions of these. The disc also contains what's essentially a remix mash-up of "Sleepers" and "Still Waters" called "Every Star in the Night Sky," and it's a nice treat for people who enjoy those two tracks.