- The Chamber Of 32 Doors
- Horizons
- Supper's Ready
- The Lamia
- Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
- Fly On A Windshield
- Broadway Melody Of 1974
- The Musical Box
- Can-utility And The Coastliners
- Please Don't Touch
- Blood On The Rooftops
- The Return Of The Giant Hogweed
- Entangled
- Eleventh Earl Of Mar
- Ripples
- Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers...
- ...In That Quiet Earth
- Afterglow
- A Tower Struck Down
- Camino Royale
- Shadow Of The Hierophant
Reforging the Sacred Fire
With Genesis Revisited II, Steve Hackett undertakes a rare artistic feat: he revisits his past not with nostalgia, but with the full creative force of a musician who has continued to evolve. Rather than offering a museum-ready restoration, Hackett opens the archive, breathes into it, and lets the old magic ignite in new and unexpected ways. The result is an ambitious, majestic, and deeply affectionate reconstruction of a musical era defined by imagination, storytelling, and fearless experimentation.
What makes this project remarkable is the balance it strikes between reverence and reinvention. Hackett doesn’t approach these compositions as relics; he approaches them as living organisms. He amplifies their strengths, sharpens their contours, and fills their lungs with modern breath while preserving the essence that made them beloved in the first place. The attention to detail is stunning - not clinical, but passionate - as if he’s re-carving runes he once inscribed, now with decades of new wisdom guiding his hand.
The cast of guest vocalists and musicians adds a kaleidoscope of colors without diluting the core identity of the material. Hackett acts not as a curator but as a conductor of energies, gathering voices that illuminate different emotional facets of the music. Each performance feels like a celebration of the original spirit, yet grounded in the individuality of the artists involved. This collaborative approach gives the album a sense of expansive community, a shared act of honoring a legacy while refusing to freeze it in time.
Sonically, Genesis Revisited II is lush, cinematic, and meticulously produced. Hackett’s guitar - expressive, fluid, unmistakable - provides a throughline that anchors the journey. His tone carries a storyteller’s precision, capable of soaring drama and delicate introspection. The arrangements are vast without being self-indulgent, grand without becoming bombastic. You can hear the joy of creation in the layers, the textures, the subtle reinventions that reveal themselves with each listen.
Yet the album’s greatest success lies in its emotional resonance. It feels like a homecoming, not only for Hackett but for listeners who grew up within the imaginative landscapes of early Genesis. At the same time, it stands firmly as a contemporary statement - proof that progressive rock, at its best, is timeless because it never stops evolving. Here, past and present coexist in a rare, harmonious symmetry.
Genesis Revisited II is more than an act of remembrance; it is an act of renewal. Hackett transforms memory into momentum, heritage into living art. This is a monumental work from a musician who refuses to let history gather dust - choosing instead to light it ablaze once more for a new generation to discover.
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My personal view:
Genesis Revisited II is the 22nd studio album by musician Steve Hackett, best known for his years as guitarist of Genesis. This is the first (and only) Hackett album that I deem essential - of the ones that came before, the 1996 first Genesis Revisited project had its moments of grandeur (especially the new version of Firth Of Fifth, sung by John Wetton), but also lots of disappointments. Having covered 11 songs in the first edition, Hackett tackles 21 more on this double CD (including a few from his solo albums), fortunately handing out almost all of the vocals to a variety of guest singers, including John Wetton, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Neal Morse, and Steven Wilson. In addition, the guest instrumentalists also include top names like Roine Stolt, and Steve Rothery. All tracks are worthwhile in these covers, but most of all the prog anthem Supper's Ready, where Hackett distributed the vocals of the separate sub-songs over five singers (Francis Dunnery, Simon Collins, Mikael Akerfeldt, Conrad Keely, and Steve Hackett himself).