Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Album of the Day

Steve Hackett: Please Don't Touch. Hackett's first solo effort was really a lost Genesis album, very much in their symphonic progressive rock style (that Rutherford and Collins played on it didn't hurt). With Genesis behind him, Please Don't Touch was the first sign of the Hackett versatility that he's cultivated since. The proggier stuff is here, to be sure ("Narnia", the title track), but so is a quasi-folk tune ("How Can I?", with Richie Havens on vocal) and a delicate jazzy ballad ("Hoping Love Will Last"). Hackett's collaborators are top notch, as he imports Frank Zappa's Roxy-era rhythm section of Chester Thompson and Tom Fowler, as well as vocalists such as Havens and Steve Walsh of Kansas.

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