WILD ORCHIDS

Wild orchids was one of the earliest album of late Hackett that entered my collection. It needed time to grow on me although it is quite accessible and not complicated. I had several catchy songs quite fast in my mind. The album proves the renaissance of Hackett as composer that started in 1999 with Darktown. He was always a capable player but composing confidence was absent for a couple of years.

The first song has a nice violin riff tandemed with clever guitar playing. "Waters of the wild" has in Indian feeling thanks to sitar (played by Hackett himself) and great percussion. "Set your compass" is a not very distinguishable song with mainly vocals and smooth flow. "Down street" combines blues, 20-30's elements into a 7-minute song. "To a close" has almost a pastoral feeling with excellent vocals and acoustic guitar. "Ego and Id" compensates previous song by using heavy drum sound and agressive electric guitar - almost a metal feeling. "Man in the long black coat" feels like out of place here and when you look at composer's name, you will understand - it's more a folky tune.

"Wolfwork" reminds me of ELO in the 80's. "She moves in memories" is "To a close" recycled with orchestral dress. "Fundamentals of brainwashing" is not unsimilar to some Pink Floyd stuff.