Steve Hackett
Spectral Mornings

Reviewing is a bit like lying... in the sense that if the artist is one you absolutely adore, being too generous is always lurking around the corner, and thus the lie, even if entirely in good faith, is always lying in wait as well. But what can I tell you? Musically, I am madly in love with Hackett for a myriad of reasons that I will spare you, using the same time to talk instead about 'Spectral Mornings.'

It's now been 4 years since the release of Steve's first solo album (Voyage of the Acolyte) and two years since the great guitarist left the Genesis lineup. The first album was heavily influenced by the Genesis style to the point that many critics of the time considered "Voyage" the best album by Gabriel & co. (obviously, that statement was dripping with irony...). For the writer, however, it was an extraordinary album of rare beauty. The subsequent 'Please don't touch,' from 1978, was instead a mixture of different genres that even touched upon soul at some moments (the presence of Randy Crawford and Ritchie Havens in this sense speaks volumes) and, along with some slightly flat moments, it also featured beautiful songs. In 1979 Hackett managed to form his own group and with them recorded 'Spectral Mornings' and traveled the globe on tour, achieving remarkable success.

The song that opens the album is one of the most famous pieces of Hackett's production and one of the encores at his concerts to this day. It is titled "Everyday" and is a long song in which the introduction of keyboards on a syncopated rhythm opens, giving way almost immediately to a catchy yet not trivial piece. The sung part holds up well, mainly due to the music beneath it, where a good drumming by John Shearer (a somewhat basic but measured drummer) and Dick Cadbury's bass create quite a sustained rhythm. A long finale with Hackett's "slides" on his Les Paul (he still wasn't using today's Fernandes), fast and sharp as blades.

The following "The Gipsy" is a slow acoustic ballad sung in multiple voices with "typically" Hackett electric guitar inserts with sustain prominently showcased. It then transitions to a piece that already at that time showed how oriental music intrigued Steve Hackett (a passion he would showcase more massively in the future as in the latest, wonderful Wild Orchids with the track Waters of the Wild). It's titled "The red flowers of Tachai Blooms" and features our hero on electric sitar in an instrumental piece with a strong Chinese-Indian flavor. Nick Magnus' keyboards create a beautiful musical backdrop to accompany it all. From the ethereal and dreamy atmospheres of the piece mentioned above, we move to one of the album's highest points represented by the obsessive and somewhat paranoid "Clocks," a piece with a simple structure but well-crafted arrangement with a prominent Taurus Moog played by Dick Cadbury. Obsessive rhythm and fairly hard drumming with a melodic line that, after two verses where the notes repeat, gives way to a variant that precedes a final drum solo.

"The Ballad of the Decomposing Man" follows "Clocks" and leaves us surprised because it is a calypso with prominent percussion and singing in a 1930s style with ironic and bitter lyrics at the same time, almost a divertissement.... but what class! The atmosphere suddenly turns solemn with the introduction of the next piece (Lost time in Cordoba) and here we are faced with the absolute masterpiece. An acoustic guitar played with a "distance" effect and Steve's brother John's flute seem to begin something ethereal, almost dreamy; instead, soon after, one of the darkest and most expressive pieces Hackett has ever composed is unleashed. Sudden swift e-guitar riff and the band's entry with a chest-shattering boom (to be listened to at maximum volume). Grandiose in the best possible sense of the word, with a slow, strongly marked rhythm by almost obsessive drumming. Interlude with keyboards simulating air raids and the guitar reproducing the sound of machine guns in the background. This is a goosebump-inducing piece, so descriptive that any other comment becomes superfluous.

After "Lost Time in Cordoba" we arrive at "Tigermoth", a semi-acoustic piece with Magnus "imitating" the accordion on the synthesizer, and Hackett's voice singing again in a slightly old-fashioned style to underscore with irony the lyrics about a captain of His Majesty's army engaged in the Italian campaign during World War II. Splendid finale with acoustic guitar arpeggios and keyboard that sounds like a glockenspiel.

Gentlemen, all these pieces while listening, give the feeling that they are like a preparation for something that will make your emotions explode, something that will soon stir your feelings..... and it's the piece that closes the album: it is titled "Spectral Mornings" and if you are like me, one of those who get excited almost to tears listening to the most dreamy tracks prog can offer, voilà.... here we are. Keyboard beginning that creates a musical background that seems even "soft" like a cloud with John Hackett's flute filling in. Small electric interlude and then: Bam, again the explosion hitting you straight in the chest. Dreamy melodic line and maximum sustain. The piece is instrumental and quite long and so captivating (where captivating does not stand for catchy in the most detrimental sense of the term), that it will remain in your ears for hours and hours even afterward. Classic prog at its purest.

Listening to this album, it is perfectly clear why Genesis died (musically) after Steve's defection. Because they had their bank accounts to replenish, Steve had love for music and his career still proves it to us today. Hackett's solo career is in some ways much more important than that of Genesis because they made great music for 7 years, He didn't: He never stopped.