Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hackett's Return To Prog Rock Form, 15 Jul 2004
It seems that Steve Hackett exorcised a lot of ghosts on his last 'rock' album 'Darktown'. 'To Watch The Storms' finds him in a much mellower, more melodic and certainly less confrontational frame of mind. The album is dripping with luscious guitar lines and crammed with melody. There are less gimmicks than previously - he simply lets the music speak for itself, and it's a relief to hear some of his more upbeat lyrics. Hackett himself is comparing this album to 'Spectral Mornings' and 'Voyage of the Acolyte' - that may be wishful thinking, but certainly on tracks such as 'Brand New' and 'Serpentine Song' he's at the height of his powers.
As with all previous Hackett releases, there is a heavy air of melancholy hanging over the music, but this time it is fondly remembered and more wistful - less oppressive than say 'Darktown'. 'Strutton Ground', 'Serpentine Song' and 'Circus of Becoming' form a loose suite recalling his childhood in London to great effect.
Fans of Steve's more aggressive work will love 'Mechanical Bride', complete with it's King Crimson-y references. Those who favour his more gentle acoustic style will be delighted by the truly beautiful 'Wind, Sand & Stars' and 'The Moon Under Water'.
Steve sings confidently throughout - he gets better each time.
Overall, a worthy addition to the SH canon - highly recommended if you like your prog 'old style'.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It just keeps getting better..., 16 Mar 2004
Recent work by Steve has been leading up to this new album. I guess he was trying to put a bit of everything on the one CD and still make it sound good throughout. It works to a certain extent, but a few of the tracks are a tad jarring when mixed in with some very beautiful and lyrical melodies. The album opens very strongly. Both "Strutton Ground" and "Circus of Becoming" are excellent examples of Steve at his best. The next track, "The Devil is an Englishman", is a bit of a curiosity. Eccentric and quirky, but still enjoyable. It explains why all the best Hollywood baddies are played by English actors. "Frozen Statues" is a change of style towards Jazz and it seems to clash a bit with what has gone before and "Mechanical Bride" is heavy rock. The changes are too extreme and frequent to make this part of the album easy to listen to right through. The tracks are fine on their own of course.
I think that the next five tracks, especially "Rebecca", show that Steve is only going from strength to strength. "Rebecca" makes the purchase of the album worthwhile on its own. If you know anything of the story, it evokes the atmosphere of it perfectly.
"Come Away" is a kind of folk song and as such is very successful. it doesn't clash with the other songs at all and I like it very much. All in all, this album is a must have for anyone who likes beautiful, melodic music with clever and intelligent lyrics. For Hackett fans, it has to be at the top of their collection.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hackett Back , 11 April 2007
This album is simply magic, and certainly belongs along side the class albums of is heyday. This by far Steve's finest written album for sometime. I have all Steve's albums, and have been a fan of is guitar playing since is early genesis days. The thing I have always admired about this guy, is that out of all the members of Genesis, Steve is the only one of them who still plays prog music. He left Genesis because of is musical differences, to which you could see the way Genesis were changing, since the loss of Gabriel, and when Collins got more involved with the writing of the band. Turning it into the world of pop music, or rather Phil Collins. I can remember Phil saying on the Genesis History Video, that Steve was never a writer, and did not contribute a lot of is writing into the band. What a joke LOL. Out of all 5 members of Genesis, I can honestly say that Steve's albums are far better than anyone of the other members of the band. He is the only one of them who stuck by is guns as regarding music, and is writing is more like Genesis than any album made after Wind and Wuthering. Because as far as I'm concerned, since the album And Then There Was Tree was made, Genesis became Phil Collins, and were not even worthy of the name.
Now to the album To Watch Storms. There are a lot of artists who I have followed for years, and as the decades have gone by, 90 odd percent of them change their style of music, in such a way that you begin to pray that there next release, will be of what they originally started out doing. And 99% of the time you never get what you want. Steves output of albums have not changed that drastically over the years he as been as a solo artist. His first 5 or 6 albums have all ways been to me class. Then we get albums like Till We Have Faces, Blues With A Feeling and Darktown. Which are not real solid albums, from is output. But on the release of To Watch Storms, here we have Steve back to the same writing and class he did years ago. Tracks like Brand New, Rebecca, Circus of Becoming and Strutton Ground are as good as anything Steve did years ago, and are pure class. There is not a bad track on the whole of this album, and I always play it from the beginning to the end. This is by far Steves best and very strong output since Guitar Noir back in 94 (excluding is acoustic albums that is). I recomend this album as a must for all Hackett fans and early genesis fans. Pure Magic and worth every gold star.
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~ Steve Hackett
~ Steve Hackett
~ Steve Hackett
~ Steve Hackett
~ Steve Hackett
