Beautiful album from Hackett's "late phase," listening to it again I liked it even more than during my first listens a few years ago. I even prefer it "a little bit" to "Out of the Tunnel's Mouth," which was already very nice, and I don't hesitate to say that it's one of my favorite "electric" albums of his, in his extensive discography. The new band is solid, and the inspiration is high. There are plenty of beautiful songs here; to be honest, there's not even one that doesn’t convince me. Hackett doesn't completely give up on some eclectic variables, like the rock-blues of "Catwalk" (rhythm section Chris Squire-Simon Phillips, a bomb) or the exotic double feature with Middle Eastern flavors of "Waking to Life" (lead vocals by Steve's sister-in-law, Amanda Lehmann, who also plays rhythm guitar and provides backing vocals throughout the album) and "Two Faces of Cairo," two great tracks. But it's a very measured eclecticism, not exaggerated. For the rest, he plays it safe, without shining in imagination (there's a melodic theme that recurs throughout almost the entire first half of the album) but with excellent melodic inspiration (that theme, for instance, is spine-tingling), and his guitar here is pure rage—like a deity, be it diddio-shubniggurath-horus or any divinity one might choose. The songs are all very beautiful; I'll pick two as examples, "Loch Lomond" and "A Place Called Freedom" (with more American ballad sound, just like "Looking for Fantasy," which is beautiful too), stunning. The interludes with classical guitar also fit perfectly. Oh, nothing, for me it’s a fantastic album.
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