STEVE HACKETT - Your favorite solo albums

i don`t know his complete work. From the ones I know, I chose:

Voyage Of The Acolyte

Please Don`t Touch

Spectral Mornings

For me it would be

Voyage of the Acolyte

Spectral Mornings

Wild Orchids

PDT, Till we have faces, Darktown, To watch the Storms and Wild Orchids* (Would've been impossible to choose between the last two, lucky it was 5!)

* Awful title, great album.

Quote from foxfeeder

Awful title, great album.

Although, most of his mid to latter album titles are pretty naff.

Quote from foxfeeder

PDT, Till we have faces, Darktown, To watch the Storms and Wild Orchids* (Would've been impossible to choose between the last two, lucky it was 5!)

* Awful title, great album.

First time I've encountered anyone (albeit online) who listed Till We Have Faces as one of their favourite albums.

It's actually one of the few studio releases of his I don't have (it fell under my radar at the time of release, and then afterwards I probably got a bit dissauded by the reviews, which seemed to be consistent across the board).

Waiting for the one fan who picks the Quiet World album.

Voyage Of The Acolyte

Please Don`t Touch

Spectral Mornings

Cured (My first Hackett concert 1981)

Genesis Revisited Vol. II

I've ticked my top five:

In no particular order:

Voyage Of The Acolyte

Please Don't Touch

Spectral Mornings

Highly Strung

Wild Orchids.

Out of interest, my next five would be:

Defector

To Watch The Storms

Blues With A Feeling (Been playing this a lot recently, funnily enough. Very underrated imo).

Guitar Noir (Love the atmosphere and the harmonies on that)

Beyond The Shrouded Horizon (I actually like the bonus disc even more than the main one!)

I haven't included his Genesis revisited stuff as I rate that very highly but wouldn't count it as 'solo' stuff, even though there's some on it. Also didn't include his classical albums, which are a very different, and thoroughly enjoyable, beast.

I actually like everything Steve's released, and I can't say that about many bands or artists.

Out of interest, least favourite? Till We Have Faces. (I still play it sometimes though).

For me

Please don't touch

Guitar noir

Darktown

Beyond the shrouded horizon

Surrender of silence *

* which becomes better and better the more I listen to it.

My top « 5 » list :

Please Don’t Touch

Voyage Of The Acolyte

Spectral Mornings

Out Of The Tunnel’s Mouth

At The Edge Of Light (more coherent than the last one).

I voted

Spectral

Bay

Guitar Noir

Darktown

TWTS

On another day it could have been VOTA, Beyond..., Mid Summer...

I wouldn't want to part with either Till We Have Faces or Blues with a Feeling, both more interesting than most of the more recent stuff.

His first four albums were straight in for me and then I had to think about Darktown, Beyond the Shrouded Horizons and Out of the Tunnel’s mouth- eventually settling for Beyond, but on a different day maybe one of the others would win. I really like his classical albums as well but only listen to those when working on something as background. The last clutch chronologically are all good albums but merge into one in my mind. I probably need to listen to them

much more so they fix themselves in my mind.

Quote from Witchwood

First time I've encountered anyone (albeit online) who listed Till We Have Faces as one of their favourite albums.

It's actually one of the few studio releases of his I don't have (it fell under my radar at the time of release, and then afterwards I probably got a bit dissauded by the reviews, which seemed to be consistent across the board).

I listened to it last night, still found it fresh, ground-breaking, Prog in the true sense of the word, and very enjoyable. From the simpler stuff like "Duel" and "Let Me Count The Ways" to the Brazillian Drum-focused "Matilda Smith-Williams....." (nicely humorous) and "What's My Name", it's all nicely done, and the humour continues with Myopia (Brandenburg concerto inserted because he can't read the sheet music!) and while I can understand it might've been a bit "out there" for some, to me, it's what he does (did! ) best.

Played the original version as I prefer the running order, but "Doll" is better on the newer version as it's a lot longer, and it'd have been nice to have the outtake, "Just The Bones" included, as it's never been released on CD, only the 12" of "Doll".

Quote from foxfeeder

Played the original version as I prefer the running order, but "Doll" is better on the newer version as it's a lot longer, and it'd have been nice to have the outtake, "Just The Bones" included

What "newer version" is that? Is it the extended "Doll" from the 12" single, with the instrumental B-side version merged onto the end (5:55 total according to the label)? I never knew that was released in any digital form.

I agree that "Just the Bones" is one of the most "why hasn't this been released on CD?" tracks in existence. (BTW, the label on the 12" gives the time as 6:58, but it's actually only about 5:52.)

Quote from DecomposingMan

What "newer version" is that? Is it the extended "Doll" from the 12" single, with the instrumental B-side version merged onto the end (5:55 total according to the label)? I never knew that was released in any digital form.

I agree that "Just the Bones" is one of the most "why hasn't this been released on CD?" tracks in existence. (BTW, the label on the 12" gives the time as 6:58, but it's actually only about 5:52.)

My mistake. I was playing the old copy and was surprised when Doll faded early, then thought "it must be the 1994 revised album where it carries on" but no, it's just the same. I'm remembering the 12". Sorry for raising your hopes!

my listening dropped off in the late 80's, so hard to say, although have listened to some of his recent albums, but just don't grab me

I am in that rare minority that actually quite liked Cured!...all about timing, as was also listening to more elecrto at the time and moving away from heavy rock

Remember seeing him play some tracks from Cured at Reading Festival...Ah, what a Funny Feeling that was! 😄

Quote from Chessman

Beyond The Shrouded Horizon (I actually like the bonus disc even more than the main one!)

It was one of the last electric albums he did that I really liked.

The one thing that always sticks in my mind whenever I play that album though is the fact "Four Winds East" which is credited to Hackett/Fenner is really an uncredited cover of "The Supernatural" composed by Peter Green.

I'd love to ask Steve about that.