New track “Under the Eye of the Sun”

I love Steve’s work and Genesis became diminishing returns for me when he left. I’ve spoken to him briefly and he seems a lovely guy. His first four solo albums were great and then the last few I’ve really enjoyed....but it saddens me to say that the feeling I had on hearing The Night Siren is coming back to me on first hearing of this track, namely it’s a bit dull. Too much reliance on rhythm and unusual sounds and too little melody and space....time to breathe. Tellingly, the quieter passages of this track interest me most. But what do I know? He’s got more talent in his little finger than I will ever have. I just hope the album has a bit more light and shade or else it will just merge into the last one. Am I getting older or is it harder to distinguish some of these tracks in the memory? Anyway, I wish him well and look forward to the album.

I have to say I was somewhat disappointed, and the vocals seemed unnecessary, but I would think it will grow on me.

This song would have felt right at home on the Squackett album he recorded with Chris Squire. Very pleasant. Some of Steve's riffs are very repetitive and have been used in abundance over the last many albums. It's hard to get through a Hackett album lately unless of course they are his earlier releases. I hope he finds something new and wonderful to inspire his guitar playing.

I love the music he's made with the band Djabe

I'm so disapointing: there's no melody, the chorus is very awful and unecessary, and a cold feeling on the guitar part. It's not a good tune at all. And the drums sound...oh my god, that's so awful. Hope that the rest of the album will be better...

Quote from Thelawnmower

I love Steve’s work and Genesis became diminishing returns for me when he left. I’ve spoken to him briefly and he seems a lovely guy. His first four solo albums were great and then the last few I’ve really enjoyed....but it saddens me to say that the feeling I had on hearing The Night Siren is coming back to me on first hearing of this track, namely it’s a bit dull. Too much reliance on rhythm and unusual sounds and too little melody and space....time to breathe. Tellingly, the quieter passages of this track interest me most. But what do I know? He’s got more talent in his little finger than I will ever have. I just hope the album has a bit more light and shade or else it will just merge into the last one. Am I getting older or is it harder to distinguish some of these tracks in the memory? Anyway, I wish him well and look forward to the album.

Kind of agree with this. I've loved most of his albums up to Beyond the, and Squackett was great too. (I say most because Cured was a slight lapse, and Blues with.. had some great moments, but it's not really a very authentic Blues album, a bit too polished). I also thought Roger King was a huge asset for him too, bringing a wealth of production and performing talent into the mix, I once told this to Roger in an email and got a nice reply. Sadly, since GR2, his production seems to have become a bit heavy-handed, and it all seems a bit to densely packed and full, acoustically. GR2 itself was a bit like this, and lacked the quirky risk-taking that made GR the great album it was. It brought commercial success, however, and it seems that this has killed off the risk taking that has been a hallmark and huge strength in Steve's work.

As you say, his old albums had so much light and shade but this sounds like Night Siren 2, and that was a bit too Wolflight itself. It's all become a bit formulaic! Yes, I'll buy the album and hope for some of the old Please Don't Touch/Darktown/To Watch The Storms magic to shine through, but I'm not counting any chickens.

It is good but all his tracks are starting to sound very samey

Hmm, perhaps not great, but not bad either. At first listen I'd say the melody and chords have sort of a "I'm running out of ideas for melodies and chords" feel to them (similar to what I hear in "Out Of The Body" from WOLFLIGHT). But, like FeelItComing says, it will most likely grow on me. I especially like the fact that the overall song structure is fairly basic (vocal part / quiet part / vocal part); I would have expected a new 7-minute Steve tune to go all over the place with no sense of direction (reflecting one of his more obnoxious tendencies in recent years).

Quote from boredatwork

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGt0GXb4PTg&feature=youtu.be

I quite like this but thought it might perhaps have been better without the vocals.

What do other people think of it?