PLEASE DON'T TOUCH!

Steve Hackett is one of my favourite solo artists but none of his 70's solo albums are in my opinion worthy of a high rating. My judgement on Voyage Of An Acolyte was that it hardly is the masterpiece it is often claimed to be and Hackett's second solo album, Please Don't Touch, suffers from all of the same problems - only much worse! It is uneven, inconsistent and disjointed. It has too many different styles of music and too many different vocalists to make it a unified whole in any way.

The two first songs give the listener the impression that this album is made for children! Narnia is a nice tune with vocals by Steve Walsh from Kansas. Carry On Up The Vicarage sounds like a children's song, with horrible talk-box vocals, one of the several low-points of the album.

Racing In A is a very good rock song with classical interludes in typical Hackett style. This song would have fitted perfectly on Spectral Mornings. Kim is a beautiful, simple acoustic instrumental with Steve's brother John Hackett's flute as the main instrument. This song would have fitted perfectly on Voyage Of An Acolyte.

But just when you thought that this album could be saved, in comes How Can I? This is basically a pretty boring, slow Pop/Rock song without a strong melody. And then, when you thought it couldn't become any worse, comes Hoping Love Will Last. This song jumps yet again to a completely different style of music with female soul-style vocals. This song has absolutely nothing that makes you think it is a Steve Hackett song. If you heard this song on the radio and you didn't know where it was from you could never have guessed that it is a Hackett tune - never! Do I need to add how out of place this song is here?

Land Of A Thousand Autumns/Please Don't Touch is a great piece of music, easily the best part of this album. This has been a strong part of Steve's live set many times.

The Voice Of Necam interrupts the title track with an unnecessary little tune that would have fitted as background music to a puppet show. Towards the end of this track we can hear Steve's characteristic classical guitar playing leading into the closing track.

Icarus Ascending, what an extraordinary title for such an unremarkable song. Yet again a new vocalist making you wonder whether it really is a Steve Hackett album you are listening to. This song leaves no lasting impression on me whatsoever.

I have given this album many chances, and despite some short moments of excellence, I cannot come to any other conclusion than the following: please don't touch this album unless you are a fan or collector (like myself).

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