STEVE HACKETT - Surrender of Silence (release date: 10th September 2021)

Hymns are a bit dangerous, because they risk becoming World Youth Day songs !?

However Wingbeats is a mix of Steve Hackett's most catchy music!

Quote from rkive

Hymns are a bit dangerous, because they risk becoming World Youth Day songs !?

However Wingbeats is a mix of Steve Hackett's most catchy music!

The more I listen to it, the more Wingbeats sounds pretty weak. It's a bit like it was put together from some sort of prog/world music construction set (that Steve uses quite frequently apparently), so I hope the rest of the album is stronger.

Quote from Harold

It's a bit like it was put together from some sort of prog/world music construction set (that Steve uses quite frequently apparently)

This is such a good summing-up of not just his style in recent years but also that of a number of current prog acts - the latter not necessarily incorporating the world music aspects but certainly seeming as though they're following a prog-by-numbers primer.

Preferred Wingbeats. I might have to change my UserID!

It's very very slightly better than Wingbeats by about a handful of molecules. Which means it's still pretty bad.

These videos are just appalling. I can see it's well intentioned, hearts are in the right place, but bloody hell...

Has a bit of an "Electric Funeral" vibe to it - at least before the guitar comes shredding in.

Between the two songs I've heard so far, I can easily say I prefer this one over Wingbeats.

That's a tough decision because it is like choosing between the plague and cholera. Waiting for the third disease release.

Meh.

The guitar playing is good, the song is not. Sounds very 80s. The rhythm section lets this down. All of his recent stuff seems to be in the same vain rhythmically, and I'm not a fan.

Quote from Backdrifter

It's very very slightly better than Wingbeats by about a handful of molecules. Which means it's still pretty bad.

These videos are just appalling. I can see it's well intentioned, hearts are in the right place, but bloody hell...

He needs a director or someone who will tell him that just stringing a series of images together in this day & age doesn't make an effective video. Go back to Behind The Smoke & Beasts In Our Time, both of which told a story & had effective visuals.

I like the track more than Wingbeats. And I don't really car about those videos

Quote from FeelItComing

He needs a director or someone who will tell him that just stringing a series of images together in this day & age doesn't make an effective video. Go back to Behind The Smoke & Beasts In Our Time, both of which told a story & had effective visuals.

Indeed, this latest video is not good, but then again, probably very cheap to make. I'd imagine the record company have put this together.

Since it does not make the claim at the end, I guess it's not a Crooked Hand production, Paul Gosling's outfit, who did several of Steve's over the last few years, at Steve's request. I know Paul, and once interviewed him for the Waiting Room. He's a great guy, and knows what he's doing. He was also a member of the old forum, though I was the only person who knew it. Is he on here? I'm not saying.

At first listen "Fox's Tango" sounds better to me than "Wingbeats." Steve's singing is especially impressive. (I can't understand the words but I get the impression he may be getting political, which I'd rather he didn't.)

BTW, I just listened to the songs without watching much of the videos. (Personally, I think music videos are one of the most useless art forms ever invented.)

Indeed, sounds quite good if you ignore the video- which has the hallmarks of a project by a promising A Level student with a half decent PC. Vocals are good and the sound is good- although the drums - whilst very flash, don’t do much for the song in my opinion. But, following the disappointing Wingbeats, this is a bit more like it in terms of whetting the appetite for the album.

Quote from DecomposingMan

BTW, I just listened to the songs without watching much of the videos. (Personally, I think music videos are one of the most useless art forms ever invented.)

I know it's off- topic, but music videos have their place! A lot are dreadful, like the ones in this thread where there's presumably a limited budget and no vision, but I think of Sledgehammer, or check out the cover of Running Up That Hill by Meg Myers (really cool), or Ava Adore by the Smashing Pumpkins. Some of them are works of art. Some might argue that they're a bit of a relic of their time I suppose, and 99.9% of the time that I listen to a single, it's on headphones or the radio while not watching the video. But as an art form, I don't think it's particularly any more useless than any other.

The package looks really good (ok, the cover image is a bit simple but anyway…)

The new track is okay, nice to hear Steve sing that way. Will buy the album … as every Hackett rock album. But I must admit - his last really great one, imo, was Guitar Noir

Quote from Christian

Darktown in my case - though I wouldn’t consider any of the more recent stuff “bad”, those Album are all okay. But they never got close to what Steve did on Darktown.

I hope to have the review finished by end of August. It’s actually quite nice to live with an album for a while before sitting down and writing the review. Usually it’s always a time issue

Beyond the Shrouded Horizon for me, but Darktown is certainly a high spot. I've long said a review needs months, even years, to truly reflect an albums strengths or weaknesses. Some music is like those shiny things that turn green in a few months!