CURED

It's true that this is not a very proggy album, but as pop it sure beats most of what Genesis was doing around the same time. Technically, Hackett has a weak voice but it actually does suit some of the songs, especially "Funny Feeling" and "Hope I Don't Wake". There are certainly plenty of memorable melodies on Cured, including the aforementioned, and some of the lesser tunes drew me in after several listens, which is the mark of good music in certain genres, such as prog. These include "Picture Postcard" and "Turn Back Time". Then several of the longer tracks actually show some development as well as great playing - "Can't Let Go", "Air Conditioned Nightmare", and the two-fer A Cradle of Swans/Overnight Sleeper. The album is pretty short, which is probably a blessing for most of the reviewers here.

More accurately I would give it 3.5 stars, but I feel obliged to defend this album's honour. At the time it came out I did not see it as a step down from Defector, but more like a move in a slightly different direction, an accessible pop-rock album, with the technical prowess I had come to expect from Hackett. I still think it sounds good today, but I have a lot of nostalgia tied up with it. I think I would like it even if I heard it for the first time in 2007, but cannot say for sure. So, prog heavyweights stay away, the rest of you may consider what I have said and decide for yourselves.