New Release The Circus And The Nightwhale By Steve Hackett

Steve Hackett released The Circus And The Nightwhale on 16th February 2024. You can find some details on Steve's website here:

https://www.hackettsongs.com/news/album-steve-hackett-the-circus-and-the-nightwhale.html

For those only familiar with Steve's work in Genesis, or his early solo albums, you might have some preconceptions about what you think this will sound like, but Hackett's sound has moved on a lot since those days. His guitar playing is never unnecessarily complex and full of delightful half-remembered melodic fragments which give you the feeling that you've heard it before. People Of The Smoke, the opening track, sounds like it's quoting from Grieg's In The Hall Of The Mountain King, for example. That's not a criticism - it works really well.

Let's talk about that first track. It ranges widely in tone from one section to another but somehow works well as an integrated whole. For me, it has the feeling of an overture, setting the scene for the whole album, but I haven't heard it enough yet to know if it anticipates themes from later on, in the way that a typical Dave Gilmour album will do for example (or, for that matter, pretty much any musical).

The album is not particularly heavy, but there are heavier moments. Taking You Down, the third track, edges towards that, but at its heart it's a melodic rock song. I could do without the extended sax solo (we have to lose that sax solo Dougal!) but that's probably a matter of personal taste. Nad Sylvan (the Swedish singer who continues to tour globally with Hackett's Genesis Revisited) does a great job of the lead vocals.

Found And Lost, track 4, sounds momentarily like it's going to be Blood On The Rooftops before taking a turn into a short, slow, bluesy song that I wish could have been longer. The vocals on track 5, Enter The Ring, sounds like Yes, or rather the kind of music I wish Yes still made. It's ethereal introduction then breaks into an old-fashioned section featuring John Hackett's flute - this is one bit of the album that could be straight out of the seventies.

Track 6, Get Me Out, is for me one of the highlights. There's a great guitar hook and a compelling verse.  Track 7, Ghost Moon And Living Love, opens with a classic Steve Hackett section - it reminds me of something on Please Don't Touch. This track is the longest, clocking in a 06:44. Come on Steve, you're barely trying to be prog! At 4:50 or so, there is such a Hackett guitar chord section I really had a smile - this is straight out of Trick Of The Tail.

The whole thing is beautifully produced. There is some absolutely sublime keyboard work. It sparkles with invention and wit. Hackett's guitar playing is (of course) assured. His vocals are excellent but maybe slightly over-produced in places. Imagine if Steve Hackett had become the Genesis vocalist after Peter Gabriel left instead of Phil Collins. One minor criticism - I don't particularly get the sense of a concept - but maybe that will take repeated listening. But overall, this is a really great album with a modern sound.

Reasons to listen:

• You like your prog to feature great melodies
• You want to hear a really solid album of modern prog

Reasons not to listen:

• Not another concept album (but really - call yourself a progger?)
• You like longer songs - some of the material on this album really deserves a fuller treatment

Interesting fact of the day: Nick D'Virgilio, Big Big Train's drummer, mentioned in the last interesting fact of the day, plays on this album too. Does he play on every single modern prog album?