Album of the Week: To Watch the Storms
This week’s AOTW is To Watch the Storms by Steve Hackett. I first heard of Steve Hackett (and also this album) in a sampler from InsideOut. I remember listening to the sampler and being blown away by both the Hackett song and the Flower Kings song. I later ordered this album and have consistently been impressed by the quality of the album.
But quality is not all that it takes to make a great album. This album has an amazing variety of music. For example, The Devil is an Englishman is an unusual techno-rock song, Frozen Statues is an extremely sparse song (I count 2 instruments,) and The Silk Road is a powerful, almost acoustic drum based song. I consider this album prog in the purest sense in that it does very unusual things with music and pulls them off quite nicely.
I would say the best listening conditions for this album are when you are on a dark beach with a storm coming in so the wind is blowing gently. It may sound like the album name is the reason, but imagine listening to it in those conditions and I think you will see what I mean.
This is another one of those albums that is hard to pick songs for, but I can try: Brand New, Rebecca, The Silk Road, and Serpentine Song.
Colors: Blue, White, and Brown.
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