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I like it a lot; it's always been my favorite from the Soundgarden catalog. More visceral than the mature "Superunknown" and more polished than the raw "Ultramega Ok," it represents the perfect compromise achieved by the band's music, the most cohesive and "square" album. I consider it one of the best Rock/Hard-Rock albums released between the '80s and '90s. Moreover, this is the best lineup of Soundgarden, at its peak, with Yamamoto, a great bassist, who played a crucial role in the songwriting process. And then there's a brilliant singer/songwriter, an excellent guitarist, a drummer also in great form, and what comes out is a very homogeneous album, even in the quality of the tracks. Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece or consider it one of "my" essential albums, just because I see Soundgarden as excellent students who, while making a fantastic impression, haven't surpassed their masters (we all know the various inspirations of the band; I don't need to repeat their shopping list). So, it's a matter of taste, but I truly find this album skirting perfection; it has only great tracks, from the first to the last, no dips, no weak points, no underwhelming songs, it flows smoothly—it's a solid block of excellent hard-rock 2.0. Beautiful.

The last album in a trilogy of masterpieces, this jewel from 2001; another splendid hit for Mark Linkous-Sparklehorse. An album of disarming delicacy, only occasionally interrupted ("Piano Fire," "King of Nails," and the madness moment of Tom Waits in "Dog Door"). Wonderful songs one after another and collaborations utilized to perfection (Waits, PJ Harvey, and John Parish, with Dave Fridmann; the latter two not only play bass and piano on some tracks but are also co-producers). "Eyepennies" eternal...

Happy ep. How beautiful is "Happy Man"? And how much more in the electrifying version "Happy Pig" with the medley ending that picks up "Pig"? Then there's another lovely cover of a piece by Daniel Johnston; after "Hey, Joe," here comes "My Yoke is Heavy." In short, a good job, a nice interlude between "Good Morning Spider" and "It's A Wonderful Life."

AARF: Attoroni (Matthau, Grant, Coburn). AUDREY. Big Director. Big Movie.

Horror and psychological thriller at its finest. The Kubrick-Nicholson duo is devastating. Another 5-star gem from Stan.

Epic, stunning, shocking, violent, extraordinary, a breathtaking finale. One of the 10 greatest films of all time. I won’t use more words because I have none left; I’ll just say that the first 30-40 minutes and the finale alone are worth a 10, everything else just solidifies it. Story.

One of the greatest filmmakers of all time delivers one of the top 5 war films ever made. Grotesque and bitter, the first segment is truly genius, while the second, set in Vietnam, is more conventional but still hits like a punch to the gut, due to its realism and brutality. The futility of war and what it transforms simple boys into. An immense masterpiece.

The film is almost a masterpiece and yet, paradoxically, it is one of Kubrick's worst (this should illustrate the greatness of this director and the heights he has reached). A great, truly great film, with multiple layers of interpretation, incredibly powerful scenes, a stunning Kidman, and a Tom Cruise in one of his most convincing performances. Splendid direction and cinematography, and the ending is noteworthy. The excellent epitaph of one of the greatest directors in history.

Enormous film. Cruel, ruthless, cynical, Stanley Kubrick's first great masterpiece remains one of his most beautiful films even today. It has no flaws, the direction is marvelous, the screenplay is ironclad, and the performances of Kirk Douglas and McReady are absolutely stunning. Probably the greatest anti-militarist film of all time. The execution scene, in its simple, ruthless cruelty, has an impressive visual power. The ending is one of the deepest and most successful ever.

Further strides for Fagen & Becker in this album, following their already remarkable debut. From this record, it becomes increasingly difficult to pinpoint lackluster tracks or dips in quality; we are already perilously close to perfection. Eight songs, each more beautiful than the last, each with its own spark, where the meticulous pop of the band perfectly blends all possible genres of music—from the "Americana" that explodes in the stunning refrain of "The Boston Rag" to the irresistible R&B/Black itch of "My Old School," passing through the Jazz of "Your Gold Teeth." Often, all these influences are actually mixed together, creating a unique style, a trademark of these two musical "POP" geniuses. If I had to choose one standout track from this album, I would say "Show Biz Kids"; that song drives me crazy. Sublime.

Excellent debut that will be followed by great and undisputed masterpieces. This is not yet at titanic levels, but it's still quite a lot, and Fagen/Becker are already two excellent authors, with their pop blending various musical influences into a miraculous harmony and balance. Already surrounded by talented session musicians (Jeff Baxter on guitar in many tracks, to name one), the two geniuses gift us in this first album with superb songs like "Do it Again," "Fire in the Hole" (my favorite), and "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again." Ah, I love "Kings" and "Only a Fool Would Say That." A great start to a great story.

Read the perfect definition of the user Barracuda Blue, please. A beautiful album, flawless and rich with insights and brilliant ideas, perfect songs follow one another seamlessly. It flows smoothly like oil in its perfectly blended mix of genres, thanks to two exceptional composers like Fagen and Becker. A piece for everyone, the one that excites me the most, probably "Charlie Freak." A wonder.

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After the artistically unfruitful Brazilian holiday at Hackett in 1982, it was time to start stressing and arguing with Charisma again. The result is this album, released the following year, which went through a troubled gestation and would be the last published under Stratton-Smith's historic label (which at the time I believe was hardly managing much anymore...). "Highly Strung" I like; it's a nice album overall, better not only than "Cured" (thanks ar ca) but for me also better than "Defector," and I don't hesitate to say so. It still partially follows a very pop-oriented path, but much less and more rarely than its predecessor. The sounds, when they're not too cheesy or plastic, are brilliant, lively, and sharp, just like Hackett's guitar, which here shines more than ever. In short, just "Casino Royale" (which will become a classic in Stefano's live sets) overshadows "Cured," and if we want to talk about '80s pop, "Cell 151" with its very poppy and cheeky first part still triumphs over the pop-curedian style. All the more pop-oriented tracks are at the center of the album, and while "Weightless" and "Walkin Through the Walls" are a bit weak (the only ones on the album I don't like), I open the wardrobe and pull out the skeleton: I like "Give it Away," the most bubblegum-pop thing this man has ever done. Everything else is made up of high-quality tracks ("India Rubber Man" is a delight, "Group Therapy" is excellent, and so on). A great album, for me.

"Guitar Noir" is a beautiful album by an artist who has reached full maturity, a refined, elegant work often set in soft atmospheres, delicate when not dark or melancholic. This is also one of the albums where Hackett manages to better blend the acoustic and electric parts of his music, in a constant exchange and dialogue between them in most of the songs, with the excellent help of Magnus' keyboards, following a well-defined path, still far from the furious eclecticism that will dominate his albums in the following decade. Then Hackett allows the acoustic "soul" and electric "soul" to take separate paths, resulting in two of the best pieces, two instrumentals, "Walking Away From Rainbows" for classical guitar and "Sierra Quemada," which is the most typically "his" electric piece in terms of guitar style—a piece that would have fit well on "Spectral Mornings," just to be clear. The other two standout tracks that elevate the album are "Vampyre With a Healthy Appetite" and then, of course, the splendid "There Are Many Sides of the Night," which traverses electric, acoustic, and even orchestral elements, encompassing all things Hackettian, the peak of the album. The low point is the nice yet isolated "Lost in Your Eyes," which feels out of place with the rest and, frankly, is cute but not much more. Other than that, there are beautiful (on average) refined songs that contribute to making "Guitar Noir" one of the most coherent and successful works of Hackett's electric phase post-'79.

His masterpiece. Wonderful work.

His first album for classical guitar, all instrumental and acoustic stuff, of course. Here there is no orchestra yet, as will be the case in the classical albums of the '90s and '00s, and the only accompanying elements to the classical guitar are the cameos of John’s superb flute (which takes center stage in the beautiful "Kim" and "Second Chance") and the synthesizers of Magnus that replace the orchestral parts, just in a couple of tracks (especially in "Calmaria"). A perfect album for moments of quiet, filled with bucolic watercolors, enveloping atmospheres, notes like drops of dew, sometimes with an almost dreamlike sweetness, other times with a more restless, hazy grip. In the reissue, excellent additions of three more tracks, very valid ("Time Lapse at Milton Keynes" is one of the best on the album, the other two are traditional pieces). The gem remains "Horizons," a safe harbor reintroduced here, 11 years after the first time, but of course, it’s taken from Giovanni Sebastiano Ruscello; for the rest, everything is signed by Steve. The Bay of Kings is already a nice album; I have to say it’s the one I like the least among Hackett's acoustics, the only one that perhaps fails to envelop me in its atmospheres for the entire duration. Hackett will refine his style and later produce three stunning classic albums, all among my favorites in his discography: "Momentum" ('88), and with the orchestra, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" ('97) and "Metamorpheus" ('05).

Third solo album, it is obviously one of his best works, the most successful after his debut among electric records. It's no longer the laboratory of diverse styles, genres, singers, and musical backgrounds that was valid but a bit confusing in "Please Don't Touch"; here Hackett puts together a well-defined band, featuring ONE singer, decent and underused, yet still maintains the eclecticism of his musical proposal and the desire to always try different things, from the journey in Japan of "Red Flowers..." to the darker and heavier "Clocks", through ironic moments like "Ballad of Decomposing Man" (which sings itself) or the surprising "Tigermoth" that constantly changes its face. When he then turns to classical guitar or his more melodic side (the delightful "The Virgin and the Gypsy" with the wonderful flute of his brother John and the melody of the chorus, which I adore), he hits me squarely. And then, well, at the beginning and end of the album, the two masterpieces that elevate this record to first-class work, two of his absolute best pieces: "Every Day" and the same, beautiful, "Spectral Mornings" because after all, Hackett, when he does "Hackett" with the electric guitar, always touches the heart, and it’s good to remember that the best singer in his albums has always been the one with six strings.

"Defector" has always left me quite cold and disappointed; it's a decent work, at times even something more, but I can't shake the idea that it's the unlucky little brother of "Spectral Mornings," even Kim's artwork is less appealing than the previous one. Half of the album is instrumental, which isn't a big deal since the singers are rarely the strong point of his albums (unless he had hired Sally Campovecchio full time, just saying), the sung tracks are the calm "Leaving" and "The Toast," classic Hackett-style ballads, beautiful songs, and then there are the two tracks where Hackett awkwardly veers towards a more pop direction, perhaps in an attempt to create something chart-friendly. Like you find "The Show" with that slappy bass line making you think, "Is it Hackett or is it AnoderUanBaizddeDast?" which I really like... The bass, I mean, the song is a bit of a mess. Just like "Time to Get Out," which isn’t bad but bland. In 1980, his former companions were much more inspired in the pop realm. Then there's the cute retro finale, nice. The instrumentals are also hit or miss; the dull "The Steppes," and the sunny "Jacuzzi," which I won't even mention the classical guitar piece, not bad but nothing exceptional in the others. I don’t know, it’s a clear step back after Spectral; from here he would start a more "pop" phase for a couple of years with the poorly executed "Cured" and the definitely better "Highly Strung."

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.

Before being struck by one of the legendary live performances of King Crimson (especially by Bob Fripp), during the summer months of 1969 (Hyde Park), one of the musical passions of young Hackett—a passion that has never faded—was for Blues and R&B, both rooted and from Chicago as well, but with particular dedication to British white Blues, a hotbed of extraordinary guitarists. So, in a decade where he did a bit of everything, why not make an album to indulge in playing and composing some Blues? And the result is quite pleasant in my opinion. There are some covers, the pieces that are more radically Blues (and what can be said about the energetic one-two opener "Born in Chicago"-"The Stumble," a perfect start) as well as the title track, for example, but most are written by Hackett, who in the more successful songs focuses on a more modern take on Blues and infuses touches of "hackettism" here and there, making it all very personal (and what beautiful pieces "Tombstone Roller" and "Big Dallas Sky" are, as well as a more standard and fun song like "Footloose," which has great energy). Hackett also personally enjoys the harmonica, and he plays it quite well, it seems to me. Of course, it's not a masterpiece of the genre—some tracks, while pleasant, leave little behind; it's not one of the most visceral examples of white Blues—but the passion (and there was no doubt about that with Hackett) is definitely there, and the album comes across as beautiful, alive, and convincing, not a bored exercise in style.