TILL WE HAVE FACES

This album is usually considered, along with 'Cured' as Hackett's most uneven, or weakest effort. I used to think the same myself, all those years ago. He seemed to have abandoned any connection with his past and was going into that strange domain that was to become known as 'world music'. Now, I have never been keen on world music, it doesn't do anything for me really, far too much percussion, and not enough melody for my liking! Recently, however, I taped this album off a friend, and gave it some serious listening time. I found, with hindsight, and probably age, that I enjoy it much more now, so I purchased from GFT the remastered cd. I can say now I really like this album! True, there is more percussion than I would usually care for, but that is really confined to the first couple of tracks. There is much more melody than I used to give the album credit for, and Hackett's trademark guitar sound does come through, now and again, to remind one who we are listening to. I won't go into individual titles here, but the highlights, for me, have to be tracks 3, 4, 5 & 6 on the run. 'Matilda Smith-Williams' is a sprawling affair, with the type of humorous lyrics Hackett is sometimes associated with. Nice guitar on here too. 'Let Me Count The Ways' is an early example of his blues roots, with nice, restrained playing and decent singing. (His singing on this album is slightly improved to what it was on 'Cured', but not as deep or tasteful as it was to become on later works, such as the lovely 'Guitar Noir'. 'A Doll That's Made In Japan' is quite atmospheric actually, with nice melody and and playing, and is notable for a rare outing on the vocal front from wife Kim, supplying the Japanese girl's voice. (A Brazilian, with Japanese accent, talking in English - interesting combination!) 'Duel' has an infectious rhythm, a concise, self-contained melody, good lyrics, (based on the film with Dennis Weaver) and superb guitar work from Steve. Excellent stuff! Also worth a mention is 'The Gulf', with its atmospheric acoustic guitar work at the beginning, a good vocal, and nice electric guitar work further on. Good song! 'Stadiums Of The Damned', a song about football supporters, is also very good,and the ending few seconds of 'When You Wish Upon A Star', courtesy of Nick Magnus's keyboards, ends the album nicely. The songs I haven't mentioned, although not my favourites, are nowhere near as bad as I remembered them! All in all, a solid effort that deserves a solid three stars.