A good album this "Wild Orchids," within the average output of Hackett's electro-acoustic work. The main flaw of the album is indeed that 17 tracks are too many, and not all are valid, and the extreme stylistic eclecticism of the various songs doesn't help either. This is another characteristic that I both like and dislike in Hackett; for instance, here it seems he takes pleasure in surprising the listener with songs that are vastly different from one another in terms of genres, styles, atmospheres, etc. In the end, I can't help but think that his stylistic signature is to not have one. And while I usually enjoy versatility even within the same album, and appreciate Hackett's versatility as well, sometimes with him it feels excessively forced, as if he has never understood (or maybe simply doesn't care) what exactly to put in his albums. Fortunately, the average quality of the songs here is more than satisfactory. There are acoustic/classical/orchestral pieces (once again the Underworld from the splendid "Metamorpheus") and electric pieces, extremely sweet and wonderfully bucolic soft songs ("To a Close") and edgy, dark tracks, covers of Bob Dylan, and songs that you would never think "Wow, this is Hackett, you can tell" (like "Down Street," which by the way is one of the most beautiful, or "Ego and Id," composed by John Hackett, a classical flautist, and it’s an amazing electric piece...). Recurring musical themes, beautiful songs and others decidedly less so ("Wolfwork"). A bit messy, but it's a good album.
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