Steve Hackett
Wuthering Nights: Live in Birmingham

Since 2013 Steve Hackett has recorded four live albums/videos, two Genesis Revisited recordings and The Total Experience and this one called Wuthering Nights. It was recorded in Birmingham and is part of a tour that commemorates 40 years since the release of Wind & Wuthering, the last album Steve Hackett did with Genesis. And to commemorate there are several song from that album to be heard here, along with some other Genesis favourites and of course Hackett’s own songs along which we can hear songs from the latest album called The Night Siren.

It seems as though lately every other album by Hackett is a live album with accompanying DVD or Blu-Ray, and this is no exception. Hackett released a live album 2013, 2014, 2016 and now 2018 with two studio albums in between. The thing is that even though he has a massive chest of songs treasures to dig from, it still feels a bit much with so many live albums. This album has a good mixture of Hackett’s solo work and Geneis stuff, some songs we haven’t seen on a live work before but that doesn’t really change the fact that this is very similar to the previous live album. The previous live album was at a more visually interesting venue, it had perhaps little more pace, and this one begins very slowly. This live show is also filmed in a very similar manner to the previous one, and while Hackett and his band are very skilled musicians they are not that interesting to watch when they perform, which could be seen as a little minus.

I think the sound and production is quite excellent the performances are top notch. I think the video is good as well, very professionally filmed and all of that. It is a high quality live production; it is impressive in many ways. Fans of Hackett and Genesis will enjoy this album and the music it provides, it is a high quality production with good variation and good songs. I like it as well but being a critic I have to look at the bigger picture, that picture is that an album like this was released by Hackett just two years ago and this offers very few, if any, things that wasn’t already offered on that live release. It has been too many live releases lately and I think that the recent studio releases Wolflight and The Night Siren are better choices if you want to add to your Hackett collection.

Check out this release if you are a Hackett fan, it has some excellent songs, it looks good and is excellently produced. I think Hackett has put together a good live release here, but it is hard to overlook the point that it also a bit pointless. Nevertheless, you will not be disappointed if you buy it.

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