Favourite Steve Hackett Albums?

I'd like to hear the esteemed views of progarchivers on their favourite Steve Hackett albums (assuming they are fans of the great man) - leaving the live releases and Genesis Revisited stuff to one side, perhaps.

Spectral Mornings remains my favourite, followed by Voyage of the Acolyte and even Please Don't Touch - but as they are from my relative youth and are his first three solo offerings - they are not a particularly illuminating selection when looking at the wealth of material he has released since then, from 1980 onwards.

I still find his albums to be like curate's eggs - with superb tracks nestled between lesser tracks, or quite quirky ones - and while his eclectic variety is to be admired, it is tough to recommend whole albums to others at times. I thought Wolflight was a strong and more consistent effort, but then again the two before it had their moments too.

Any views or insights?

Edited by Squonk19 - October 25 2017 at 03:06

Tom Ozric wrote: Voyage Of The Acolyte =. Perfection Then Spectral Mornings and Defector, though both have ‘stupid’ tracks. Take Tigermoth, what’s with the goofy vocal section ?? And Sentimental Institution is just daft. Why, Steve ??

My first Hackett purchase was Guitar Noir and it's still a favorite.

Great, fun listen.

The first four slay. After that it's a rather hit or miss affair.

I know very little of him solo. I did love Voyage of the Acolyte... specially Shadow of the Hierophant. There are some other songs I have liked from live albums, but specially songs on Rails Live from the album "Out of the Tunnel's Mouth".

the acoustic albums. "Bay of Kings", "Momentum", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (that one especially) and "Metamorpheus"


Edited by BaldJean - October 26 2017 at 01:45

BaldJean wrote: the acoustic albums. "Bay of Kings", "Momentum", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (that one especially) and "Metamorpheus"

Peaceful beauty.

1. Please don't touch, 1978

dr wu23 wrote: Well...I only have the first 4....and of those Voyage is by far my favorite....as someone above said there are good tracks on all of his albums but for me many of them are hit or miss.

What you and probably many others call "hit and miss" is a quality I very much like about Steve Hackett: He doesn't give a damn about expectations; he just does what he wants, which in my opinion is the sign of a true artist.

Well, Banks got what he wanted, then. Mainstream pop sales.