SURRENDER OF SILENCE

For me, Steve Hackett is a wonderful musician and a prolific composer with a huge body of work that continues to grow apace. Surrender Of Silence was his second release of 2021, with Under A Mediterranean Sky, another fine release, coming out early in the year having been written in the pandemic period 2020. I never got around to rating Surrender of Silence but loved the album straight away and it ended up with more than double the number of full album listens than any other 2021 release. I found the more I listened the more I loved it and that has continued into 2022. I feel I must record my appreciation for what is surely an under-rated 2021 album. I find all tracks on the album to be highly enjoyable and it is one of the few albums that I continue to listen to from beginning to end. While all the tracks are good, it is worth mentioning Relaxation Music For Sharks which I disliked the first time until I realised what it was trying to depict and what an extraordinary piece of music it is. I also particularly love the melody and its associated story in Natalia. Wingbeats is a great foot tapper. Shanghai To Samarkand opens with an exquisite Chinese melody and develops cleverly through various phases. The other track worthy of mention is Day Of The Dead for the way it develops. Some eight months after I first started listening to the album, I am still returning to it on a regular basis with no sign of growing tired of it. Worthy of a five-star rating, this album is now in my top 30 albums of all time and is my highest rated Steve Hackett album.