Musically this one continues in the direction Steve explored with the previos album, 'Cured', although here the somgs are more focussed and stronger than the previous effort. Part of this is due to having gone back to a band situation(featuring Nick Magnus and Marillion's Ian Mosely), while there's also a more 'progressive' element going as well. Highly Strung is also his last band/rock album with recurring themes and reprises, something which had charactarized some of his other earlier albums(Defector, Voyage Of The Acolyte) and also on such Genesis albums as Wind & Wuthering. The track sequence is different from the original vinyl, so I'll give it one star less, as the original sequence was more effective. Here's the rundown: Camino Royale - A stage favorite which remains in Hackett's live set to this day. Nice interplay between guitars & synth

Cell 151 - Great rock track with extended instrumental section at the end. I suppose this is very similar to his ex-bandmates' 'Abacab' song, in that it is a rock song with an extended jam starting halfway through the song.

Always Somewhere Else - good instrumental which starts with a Hackett/Magnus guitar/acoustic piano duet which developes into an instrumental piece.

Walking Through Walls - musically more in common with early 80's funk bands like Chic and Ray Parker JR. or 'You Dropped A Bomb On Me' than Genesis of old. A mild funk synth bass line dominates this, one of Steve's more offbeat yet accessable efforts.

Give It Away - in contrast, this sounds very much like a lost GTR track, with its arena anthem-like guitar lines and vocals. Where was Max Bacon for these sessions? This could have been a hit- surely it does sound a bit like Asia, the most AOR track on the album. Nice one.

Weightless - A song about Hang-gliding. Pleasant enough.

Group Therapy - as the title of this track says, this jazzy instrumental is a great group effort, with Steve and Magnus trading off licks and the rhythm section providing a solid bed for them to go off.

India Rubber Man - forgettable but short slow number which reprises the theme from 'Always Somewhere Else'.

Hackett To Pieces - Another group number, this caps off Highly Strung rather nicely. In fact, with the heavy drumming, this also sounds like it could have been a Genesis number. Genesis could have performed this well, and would have had Steve remained with them.

Solid playing, fine songs. If you're able to find it, do yourself a favor and pick it up, its one of my favorits.

I always like Steve Hackett's explorations. This album has a well-structured set list, the flow from song to song is very good. Cell 151 seems to be a tip of the hat to the disco machine, because of the insistent rhythm. My favorite is India Rubber Man.

Having listened to the first four albums by Hackett, I was truly blown away. The ideas and musical genius of this man are stunning. I, being a follower of more melodic pop and classical, loved some of the soft, melodic ideas he came up with. 'Kim', 'The toast', 'Shadow of the hierophant', 'spectral mornings', to name a few melodic, soft masterpieces.

Cured I could just about accept, it had 'Cradle of Swans' which harked back to his earlier work and the last track 'Turn Back time' was a very melodic piece with nice harmonies, the rest was ok.

This is something of a culture shock for me. Gone are any soft songs and tuneful tracks with different instruments and multi layered songs. It is just rubbish pop song after rubbish pop song, and Hackett just sounds out of tune and there is just no interest to any of the tracks. I was really suffering by track 2. Boring, unispired pap.

The only track with any merit whatsoever is 'India Rubber Man', and that's probably because it has a change in texture, noticeable to the rest of this crap.