TO WATCH THE STORMS

It´s a strange feeling I get with this album. I´ve been listening to it on and off for some months. I couldn´t really tell what´s wrong with it, but I also not able to tell why it didn´t really move me either, untill recently. Like much of latter Steve Hackett stuff I´ve heard, To Watch The Storms doen´t show any real direction or purpose: it sounds like a bunch of diffrerent songs played randomly. Not that the tunes are bad, they´re mostly good and obviously well performed, although the quality, style and genre of the songwriting varies wildly. There is something for everyone, from acoustic guitar pieces (The Moon Under The Water) to KC inspired experimentalisms (Mechanical Bride), to the inevitable whimsical number (The Devil Is An Englishman), Jazz (Frozen Statues) and even some real progressive parts (Circus Of Becoming, This World).

My copy was the special edition and included four extra tracks of which only the classical guitar instrumental If You Only Knew is of some interest, unless of course you like some straight 60´s blues, complete with a harmonica solo (Fire Island).

To Watch The Storms once again proves Steve Hackett as a quite good songwriter and excellent player: his guitar still shines all the way through. It is the obviously highlight of the CD. He is backed by equally skilled musicians. However, it needed some kind of unifying feeling to put those tracks in some kind of order. Sometimes I feel like hearing different bands playing. The variety of styles should be a demonstration of versatility, but ultimately it looked more like a lack of personality.

Good, but this is not much from such proven musician and prog legend like Hackett. Three stars.