{"id":24281,"date":"2022-12-09T05:30:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T10:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24281"},"modified":"2022-12-09T08:08:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T13:08:50","slug":"album-review-steve-hackett-genesis-revisited-live-seconds-out-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/09\/album-review-steve-hackett-genesis-revisited-live-seconds-out-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Steve Hackett — Genesis Revisited Live: Seconds Out & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There\u2019s a sizable contingent of Genesis fans that vastly prefers the group\u2019s earlier work \u2013 its progressive era, so to speak \u2013 over the band\u2019s later, more pop-oriented period. They\u2019re far more interested in hearing epic works like \u201cSupper\u2019s Ready\u201d than something like \u201cTonight, Tonight, Tonight.\u201d And while there\u2019s no denying the commercial appeal of the Phil Collins era, from a critical perspective, it\u2019s the music of the days when Genesis was fronted by Peter Gabriel that is most likely to stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

Either way, current-day (or recent-day) Genesis hasn\u2019t been focusing on that material in its performances. Not counting the largely-disowned Calling All Stations<\/i> album (which is not as bad as one might guess), Genesis hasn\u2019t released any new music in over 30 years. Still, the most recent tour dates (featuring a seated Phil Collins) emphasized the pop side of the group. If you were a fan of, say, \u201cThe Knife,\u201d you were pretty much out of luck.<\/p>\n

Guitarist Steve Hackett left Genesis in 1977. His guitar playing was always melodic in the extreme, and it formed a critical part of the progressive-era band\u2019s sound. He embarked upon a critically acclaimed career of his own, and eventually found his voice as a solo artist (literally: his once-tentative singing voice developed into an impressive instrument).<\/p>\n

And Hackett\u2019s solo material has been consistently compelling, skillfully balancing emotional content with impressive instrumental pyrotechnics. His solo material builds upon the creative foundation of his Genesis-era work, but doesn\u2019t exploit it in any way.<\/p>\n

That backdrop means that Hackett has expertly positioned himself as the torchbearer of Genesis\u2019 progressive era music. And he has carried that role effectively and with class, integrating performances of the early material into his own sets. Unlike groups that tour solely on the strength of music they made a generation ago, offering nothing new, Hackett has it both ways. As do his audiences.<\/p>\n

Home listeners have benefited from Hackett\u2019s approach as well. In addition to his deep catalog of studio albums, Hackett has released quite a few live sets. Twenty of them, by my count. And several of those have been under the \u201cGenesis Revisited\u201d banner. The latest is a 2CD+Blu Ray collection called Genesis Revisited Live: Seconds Out & More<\/i>.<\/p>\n

As the title implies, the original Seconds Out<\/i> was Genesis\u2019 second live release. That 1977 double LP dated from the period when Collins was fronting the band, and it was the last Genesis release to feature Hackett. It focused on the progressive period of the band\u2019s music, though, making it in many ways (at least with the benefit of hindsight) a best-of-both-worlds album.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s fitting that Hackett would revisit that set list in the 21st<\/sup> century. After opening with a half dozen of his own best solo tunes, he and his superb band tackle Seconds Out<\/i> in its entirety. The band is truly magnificent, treating the material with respect yet giving the music its own current-day character. The performances are close enough to the original to satisfy longtime listeners, and different enough to justify the set\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

There are few musical experiences more thrilling than hearing Steve Hackett play that guitar solo on \u201cFirth of Fifth,\u201d and he does so here, channeling all of the original’s grace, power and majesty. In fact, the entire set delivers on that level. While he\u2019s re-creating peak-period Genesis for the 21st<\/sup> century, Hackett is also working at the top of his game. Seconds Out & More<\/i> is enthusiastically recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a sizable contingent of Genesis fans that vastly prefers the group\u2019s earlier work \u2013 its progressive era, so to speak \u2013 over the band\u2019s later, more pop-oriented period. They\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,56,65],"tags":[892,2685,2047],"class_list":["post-24281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-prog","category-review","tag-genesis","tag-genesis-revisited","tag-steve-hackett","cat-49-id","cat-56-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24281"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24444,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24281\/revisions\/24444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}