Steve Hackett classic or dud, search and destroy

"The Virgin and the Gypsy" is gorgeous too, lovely misty mythopoetic stuff.

Onto Defector, "Jacuzzi" is such a funny name for music like that, joyous

"Hammer in the Sand" another super gorgeous track. I think Defector is the first album not to end with an epic track but with a sort of comedic pastiche. I think this is the first one with a bside not my collection: "Hercules Unchained"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEGh13ISQ-M

I see that my boxed set skips Cured and goes onto Highly Strung next

Highly Strung has some really good frantic, energetic tracks but there's a few that seem to be designed as singles that are not bad but definitely make it less enjoyable than the first 4 albums.

So that's the end of this 5 Classic Albums set, it's probably the most consistently enjoyable box set of this kind that I've heard so far. I don't know if I'll go for Cured next because it sounds like he's not as happy with it.

actually heard his latest one a couple days ago, first 'modern' Hackett album I've heard actually. it is pretty good though I can't say I remember much about it.

Ha, yeah, I hadn't realized until recently that he'd also been cranking out a pretty steady run of studio albums too. I guess I thought he was spending most of his time with the live Genesis material.

as far as I've heard they're all pretty good but a bit samey. when I saw him live he played a decent amount of recent stuff and I liked it all. but of course we were mostly just waiting for them to launch into Foxtrot. was an amazing show btw