SPECTRAL MORNINGS

Steve Hackett could learn a thing or two from his early classic albums. First: get a complete set of musicians, including persons who sing better than yourself. This is one of those classics that have the things just right (except for one awful track: 'Ballad of The Decomposing Man' sung terribly by Steve. IMHO one of his ugliest songs ever!) But for the rest, this is a gorgeous album and a must for all friends of Steve Hackett. The main vocalist is Pete Hicks who fits to the music perfectly, and many songs have fine vocal harmonies.

'Every Day' is a nice mixture of straightforward song and progness. It ends with a long spectacular electric guitar solo, one of his finest. 'The Virgin And the Gypsy' (inspired by a D.H. Lawrence short story of the same name?) is a charming song with great harmonies. 'Tigermoth' reminds a bit of 'Every Day' as a song but its starts with an instrumental section - and ends with acoustic guitar.

Four of the eight tracks are instrumentals (a very nice amount for a Hackett album). 'Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere' is a short Japanese-sounding beauty featuring koto. 'Clocks' is dramatic in a very proggy way. Acoustic 'Lost Time in Cordoba' has - you guessed it - a Spanish flavour. And the title track ends the album in a majestic way. Besides Hackett's trademark electric guitar sound, you can enjoy the full band sound, especially the bass.

Simply, this vey enjoyable album wonderfully shows his many-sided strengths. This kind of (instrumentally oriented) music is where he's at his best. But for one ugly song and the SONG- writing that COULD be better (some of the choruses or refrains are a bit dull), this is not quite a five-star masterpiece for me.