Steve Hackett post Defector - any good?

I absolutely love Steve Hackett's solo career. So far, that is. Everything up to Defector is fantastic, with Please Don't Touch being a bit iffy at times, but it's not a cohesive album anyway. I do have Cured, and while the pop influence is clearly there, stuff like The Air Conditioned Nightmare and A Cradle of Swans keeps my interest. Nick Magnus is REALLY good too, and I know he plays on Highly Strung and Till We Have Faces as well. Additionally, I have Bay of Kings and it's quite nice, love it for downtime, but I'm mostly looking for the main studio stuff, not classical guitar or live albums. So the big question is...

Darktown is magnificent because the songwriting isn't geared toward a melodic "Pop" oriented melody. To be honest, some of Steve Hackett's songwriting containing vocal melody is not all that different from 10CC or Supertramp. He is very crafted at writing instrumental music as well. As in the case of Anthony Phillips who is yet another instrumentalist type that occasionally crosses into commercially viable songwriting styles. Another fine guitarist who produces great instrumental music and writes radio friendly material is Andrew Latimer. Although he never scored a hit, he was to the level of some of the greats like 10CC, Supertramp. and Mike Oldfield. Steve Hackett is skilled in being an instrumentalist and a songwriter. You would have to surf through tracks to find the right album, but I would recommend Darktown.

Edited by TODDLER - March 16 2015 at 10:21

To Watch The Storms is probably my favourite SH album. I also like Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth. I have not heard too much by him I don't like. Never occurred to me there was a cut off point. He's had a great career and its still going strong!

Steve decided to turn back to prog rock more with Darktown.  I enjoy all his studio albums from then forward.  His classical stuff is not too shabby either.

Guitar Noir is fantastic. Some highlights are his debut with harmonica, the beautiful guitar driven musical piece, Sierra Quemada, Dark as the Grave, and Like an Arrow.

To Watch the Storms is probably his best songwriting ever. Tony Banks ought to give it a listen. My highlights would be the entire track listing.

Out of the Tunnel's Mouth is nice. It has a fast paced prog rockin' instrumental piece called Tubehead. Another nice instrumental of slower pace is Ghost in the Glass. Nomads is something reminiscent of Guitar Noir, starting off gentle and the picking things up toward the second half. Same deal with Emerald and Ash. Anthony Phillips plays 12-string on a couple pieces too.

Wild Orchids is highly recommended. It has a lot of tracks and some real value for your money. Transylvanian Express is an electric instrumental with a lot of quirkiness and original vision. Howl has a lot of Hackett doing his thing with massive sustain and lots of vibrato bar to be followed up with some pretty classy piano.

I really like Beyond the Shrouded Horizon as well. Two Faces of Cairo is an especially nice instrumental with a Middle Eastern flare to it. And disc 2 contains some really iconic guitar lead pieces, Four Winds: East and She Said Maybe. It also has Hackett doing a cover of Focus' Eruption: Tommy.

I can vouch for Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth. Admittedly, I gave up on Hackett after Cured - i did try a few after that but wasnt too thrilled by them, received Guitar Noir as a birthday gift at the time of release, has some nice things on it, then more recently acquired the vinyls of Tunnel and Shrouded Horizon, and they're both engaging listens, especially Tunnel (which came with a bonus LP of him and his band doing Genesis tracks !!). You can't go wrong with the SQUACKETT album, either. I love that one too.

Steve Hackett was the prog saviour during the dark days of 78 - 80.  Then came 'Cured', and although I saw the tour I thought he would go the way of his peers - into commercial nothingness.  However, he came back with 'Highly Strung' which I think is underrated - Cell 151 is a belter, for instance.  I saw the tour as well and thought it was a return to form after 'Cured'.  However, he seemed to disappear after 'Till We Have Faces', not a bad album at all.  I eventually caught up with Steve some 27 years later at the much missed High Voltage festival - it had been a long time!

A friend turned me onto Metamorphous recently, so I slipped it into the ol' truck CD player and enjoyed it greatly as I drove around completing chores on a hot summer day. Classical to the point that the listener might think Hackett is doing his take on existing classical pieces. From what I know, it's all his own, and it's a wonder this guy hasn't ventured more into film scoring (to my knowledge, he's done a little TV music with his brother). Gently, exquisitely epic.

You should check : Guitar Noir, To Watch the Storms, Beyond the Shrouded Horizon

Really digging Wolflight atm, another strong one.

If you enjoy Bay of Kings, go for Momentum and Tribute.

Since this I've finally gotten around to Highly Strung and Till We Have Faces. First one is pretty iffy - but Hackett to Pieces is awesome. Second one is quite good - still synth pop in places but definitely has that signature sound to it and the songs are generally good. His best lead vocals yet as well.

Edited by fudgenuts64 - June 27 2015 at 00:14