Defector

Artist: Steve Hackett
Label: EMI/Virgin
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 077778665328
EAN: 0077778665328
ASIN: B000025JU8

Release Date: 2004-01-01

Defector

Related Categories:

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock

| Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

The Steppes
Time To Get Out
Slogans
Leaving
Two Vamps As Guests
Jacuzzi
Hammer In The Sand
The Toast
The Show
Sentimental Institution

Similar Items:

Spectral Mornings
Please Don't Touch!
Highly Strung
Cured
Voyage of the Acolyte

Customer Reviews:

Not as great as the previous releases.......2007-04-28

This is the fourth album from Steve, it contains three great tracks,
"The Steppes", "Jacuzzi" and "Slogans".
You have also some good acoustic songs, some pop ones (The Show and Time to get out) and a funny tracks in the 1920's style (Sentimental Institution) To my taste, this one is still good but not as great as the first three albums.

I like some of it.......2004-12-20

Maybe I branched out a little too far by buying this, since I am only an admirer of Genesis. I was determined to buy this, however, after the masterful performance Hackett gave on 'Blood on the rooftops'. That won me over. I bought this one and can say I like some of the songs. I admit, I am not a fan of instrumental music, perhaps my mind is not open enough, yet. However, my favourite track is a beautiful spanish guitar piece called 'Two Vamps As Guests', which lasts about a minute, whiich I like because I have a short concentration span. I also like Hammer in the sand, a nice piano meets string song. The Show is a fun 80's pop song, while Time to get out is a great pop meets prog song. Also, Toast and Leaving are really nica Folk songs that have a very mysterious aura aroudn them. Slogans, Jacuzzi and Steppes are complex prog instumentals which aren't really my thing but the prog fan will really like them. Sentimental institution is a daring attempt at old fashioned 20's pop. I don't mind it but it's not a song I really like or anything. I personally feel he could have done better with that last one, maybe I'm wrong.

A Gem on the Dusty Road of Music.......2004-12-05

I'm thankful my older brother introduced this album to me when it first came out; allow me to introduce it to you.

There are some albums you own that make you think: 1) I'm so glad this album has come into my life--I'm richer for hearing it; 2) The artist has mastered his/her instrument and plays with a wisdom that conveys unspoken language; 3) It isn't enough to own it, you have to tell others about it, so that they won't miss out on it. Steve Hackett's Defector is one such album.

I pulled this CD off my shelf the other day and found it has not lost any appeal whatsoever for me. The music (vocal-laced songs and instrumentals) is beautiful, clever, occasionally precious, gentle, sometimes hard, and confident. It is always interesting aurally.

Steve Hackett is such a wonderfully good guitarist with an ear finely attuned to interesting melodies and harmonies. His writing comes across as effortless; a natural progression.

If you are looking for an entry into the Steve Hackett catalog, Defector is my recommendation for where to start. Another fine Steve Hackett CD, but just so you know it is acoustic and quite relaxed, is Bay of Kings.

If you have an enormous CD collection, you might already own this album (get it out and give it another spin!), but if not and you are just browsing reviewers' recommendations desparately looking for something not on the well-trod path but altogether interesting look no further that Steve Hackett's Defector.

A much more uneven effort than "Spectral Mornings".......2003-03-24

On this 1980 album, Hackett has the band from his very good "Spectral Mornings" album, but the songwriting is much less consistent. Still, this was Hackett's most successful album, going to No. 9 on the British charts. I recall playing Side 1 of this album about three times as much as Side 2, so the sound clips here should give you a feel for the album's best material. "The Steppes" and "Slogans" use the wall-of-sound approach that was so successful on "Spectral Mornings". "The Steppes" may be the best example of this signature Hackett sound--booming bass pedals and spare drums set a slow beat over which Hackett's guitar, Nick Magnus' keyboards, and (brother) John Hackett's flute play a theme in a massive unison. "Leaving" is a pretty song, a reminder that Hackett wrote Genesis' "Entangled". On "Two Vamps as Guests", Hackett plays alone on a very processed acoustic guitar. In 1980, every prog-rock act was desperately trying to figure out how to get some radio play. Hackett's attempts at pop success were "Time to Get Out" and "The Show"; they don't really work, but they're better than later efforts like "Hope I Don't Wake". "Jacuzzi" is an instrumental that's too laid back here; it comes off better on the live "Time Lapse" album. "The Toast" is a pleasant curiosity that mixes a maudlin drinking song with an Erik Satie-style instrumental. "Hammer in the Sand" is a forgettable instrumental for keyboard and guitar synth. "Sentimental Institution" closes the album with a throwaway number, with singer Pete Hicks singing over music played entirely on the rhythm and chord buttons of an Optigan organ.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

A much more uneven effort than "Spectral Mornings".......2003-03-24

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