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Steve Hackett - Rails Live CD (album) cover

RAILS LIVE

Steve Hackett

 

Eclectic Prog

4.31 | 119 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Tarcisio Moura
Prog Reviewer
4 stars There is little surprise in this album, and I meant it in a good way. If Steve hackettīs studio output has been a little predictive and not exactly exciting lately, on stage the old magic still shines through. Rails Live was recorded when he was promoting his Out Of The Tunnelīs Mouth. Although that CD is hardly his best, it isnīt bad either. And Iīm glad to say that those songs did work better live than on studio. Here he plays it almost on its entirely: only Nomads and Last Train To Istambul are not featured here (some parts of the latter did appear during the intro, thought). It is a bit strange that the best track of Out Of... (Nomads) is missing. Go figure!

Backed by an excellent band, Hackett plays some strong versions of other solo works like Ace Of Wands from his debut Voyage of The Acolyte) and Every Day. But the true gems are on the second CD where he plays no less than 5 Genesis covers, including the first ever "complete" live take of Firth Of Fifth. Fro some reason Genesis always skipped the excellent piano intro every time they play it in front of an audience. Finally now we have a great interpretation of this classic in its full 10 minutes. Blood On The Rooftops was another nice treat. Fly On A Windshield, Broadway Melody of 1974 and Los Endos are also very well played. On the down side there is a drum solo at the end of Clocks (mercifully, a short one, but still annoying). Besides that I was not completely satisfied with Rob Townsendīs sax playing, sometimes bordering the muzak. A little more flutes would be finer for those songs. But those are minor flaws in an otherwise excellent album.

With an crystaline, very well balanced sound and top notch production, Rails Live provides almost two hours of very fine music. A great CD, proving that Hackett is still one of the greatest guitarrists ever and he has lost none of his prowness over the years. Of course there are a few tracks that Iīd like to hear him playing instead of others, but thatīs a matter of personall taste. You can never please everybody. Overall I loved this album.

Highly recommended!

Tarcisio Moura | 4/5 |

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