steve hackett ( please don,t touch )

The album holds a special place in my memory, although it was a lesser work between 'Voyage' and 'Spectral Mornings'. Some cracking and very melodic songs, along with the trademark oddities (although the lyrics of 'The Ballad of the Decomposing Man' still makes me chuckle, and 'Carry On Up the Vicarage' has a quirky charm).

For me the weakness of the album, is also its strength for others. I find the lack of a single vocalist leads to an unevenness to the whole album. They all do a superb job, but with Steve still not sure about his vocal style and his confidence in holding down a whole album alone, it is disjointed.

I do remember purposely playing 'Racing in A' and 'Narnia' before I took important school exams on consecutive days. I was in the habit of getting a song in my head, and if it was a dodgy one heard from the radio, I would be hearing it throughout the exam. So I decided that if I was going to have a song in my head during the hours of my A Level exams - I wanted it to be a good one!

It's an experimental, risk-taking album that I didn't like at first, but I kept listening and now it's my very favorite Steve Hackett album. The atmospheres on "side two" are especially strong, and it's far less morose and gloomy than Voyage of the Acolyte. It's the closest he ever came to the other-worldliness of A Trick of the Tail.

Edited by Steve Wyzard - March 19 2018 at 11:41

I think he had that period during the eighties after Defector when his albums were a bit off (New wave music was where the action was), but then got his mojo back in the nineties and is still making good music.