InsideOut Music
Steve Hackett remains one of the most prolific musicians working in the progressive rock space. Despite a demanding tour schedule with his revisiting of the early music of Genesis to which he made such a definitive contribution, this new record, “The Circus and the Nightwhale” will be his thirtieth solo work.
It is an ambitious and rich record. Hackett has explained that is a concept album of sorts, drawing on his life experiences as jumping off points for the themes of the songs and the overall shape of the record, as the main character, Travla, moves from the very concrete world of 1950s London through increasingly metaphorical spaces, through trials and fire, before ending up in the belly of the eponymous whale. The richness comes most of all from the variety of musical styles which the record manages to include. There is dirty blues rock in “Taking You Down” and something closer to rock fusion in “Get Me Out!” and “Breakout”. Fans of Wobbler, Jordsjø, and Big Big Train will enjoy the dense, lush post-Genesis folk-rock of “Enter The Ring”, with its layered twelve-string guitars and ensemble vocals. There are traces of industrial rock in “Into The Nightwhale” and East-meets-West folk music in “Circo Inferno”. So, each song has its own voice and its own musical style, with only the segues in recording holding them together. Occasionally, this variety spills over into the songs themselves – “Taking You Down” and “Wherever You Are” themselves contain several different styles of music and arrangement. The record certainly keeps you on your toes.
There’s theatre too, with the shorter musical pieces like the excellent “These Passing Clouds” standing almost as preludes to the songs which serve as the “big numbers” in the drama. Pieces like “Get Me Out!” and “Ghost Moon and Living Love” have strong, theatrical openings, announcing their arrival.
The guitar work is equally varied. We get the full range of Hackett’s guitar voices on this record, from the signature fast runs, fret-tapping, and wailing vibrato to more conventional blues rock sounds and of course his classical and Spanish guitar playing. No part of Hackett’s guitar vocabulary seems to be missing from this album, and whichever particular style or voicing of his you find most evocative, it will be found somewhere in the mix. There are no shortages of long, obligato guitar sections, but none that are too long, overstay their welcome, or push the music out of the way – the solos arrive as the music needs them.
By and large, the musical contributions from the other players are also first-rate, especially from long-time collaborator drummer Craig Blundell, whose forward-leaning attacking style punctuates the album, though we have guest appearances from Nick D’Virgilio and Hugo Degenhardt as well. Roger King, Hackett’s musical third hand, is also very much in evidence, as much from the broad string and synth parts as from the overall production.
It is curious that, as a concept album, it is so varied. And, indeed, were it a musical score for a show of sorts, the variety of the music would undoubtedly stretch the atmosphere of the production. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader whether the breadth of the record is a strength or a weakness. It is certainly striking and there are few weak parts in the arrangements – each piece stands well on its own. However, the record is at its best when it is most adventurous, and the more radio-friendly parts, like “Ghost Moon…” and the opening section of “Wherever You Are» fall flat in comparison with the pieces like “Circo Inferno” and “Get Me Out!” which are dynamic, well-constructed, and exciting, and totally different from the rest of the album. We end with one of Hackett’s signature classical guitar pieces “White Dove”, a gentle, lyrical close to an energetic, complex record. Given the journey we have been on, this is a final note of peace for the protagonist, his struggles over. To draw on the biographical theme of the record, he has finally reached that room which has all Hackett said he ever needed as a young man – a bed, a chair, and a guitar. There’s considerably more than that in here – a smorgasbord that is more big top than small fayre.
4,5/6 | Alex Maines
Release date: 16 February 2024