Squackett 10+ years on

[soundchaser09]

I was just listening to this again today. Wonderful collaboration, sounds very much like a Steve Hackett album, but the presence of Chris is felt throughout. Great harmonising and playing on display. It definitely has a quirkiness to it in places (Aliens was always a quirky and fun song, and is more suited here than a Yes album IMO.)

Highlights: A life within a day, tall ships, sea of smiles, can't stop the rain falling. 7/10

[RelayerI]

It's still shit.

I only played it the second time as I couldn't believe it was as bad as I found it on the first listen.

[Old Frothingslosh]

It left me underwhelmed. Had a few good moments but feels like it was just Chris as special guest on a subpar Hackett album. I had really high hope for this.

[Kevin W]

Terrible name for a band but a really rather enjoyable album. It’s a thumbs up for me.

[Mr. Holland]

I like the first two and last two songs on the album very much. The rest not so much. So I have basically only played those four tracks in recent years.

[Chrisklenox]

I love this one! Still holds up well for me. Great songs, arrangements, and production. I play this more often than anything Yes beyond 90125 besides Magnification maybe. Can say the same for Steve’s Time album and Syndrstructible, though I wish the lyrics on that one had more substance.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Fine album for me, though it leans heavily towards the Hackett side with the presence of Hackett' s keyboardist/arranger Roger King - it's like a recent era Steve Hackett solo album with special guest Chris Squire. Less 'Yessy' moments than Wolf Light/Night Siren/Darktown etc, but still a very enjoyable album.

Best bits: maybe Aliens, Sea Of Smiles, Can't Stop The Rain, Divided Self. Too bad they never got the chance to do a second album.

[Gilly Goodness]

A LIFE WITHIN A DAY rocks it's little socks off 😎


As does STORMCHASER

very Zeppish. Specially the drums

[Somis Sound]

I really like this album. Great driving music. Love the smoking middle section of the title track! Also really like Tall Ships, Aliens, The Summer Backwards, Can't Stop The Rain, and Perfect Love Song. Chris does some great vocal work! Very interesting album, these 2 guys had a lot of fun making it

[Ceasar’s Palace]

The Summer Backwards! That’s it. That and The Syn’s Cathedral Of Love would have to be my favorite Squire post 2000 output. Nothing else…

[Ash Armstrong]

It's still shit.

I only played it the second time as I couldn't believe it was as bad as I found it on the first listen.

Yep.

[downbyariver]

I like it. There were rumors that a second one was in the works, and I probably would have bought that one, too, had it come to fruition.

That said, the album wasn't really done in a style that I typically enjoy on other albums. There's sort of acoustic folk laid back quality to most of the tracks that doesn't quite sound like rock and roll as we know it (And is actually mellower than some actual folk songs). As others have mentioned, a lot of it seemed a bit like it was done in the style of a 21st century Steve Hackett albums, which I give Hackett a lot of credit for churning out at a frequent clip with sometimes interesting themes at a point in his career where he probably doesn't have to, but which I've only bought one or two of because they aren't really my thing.

With Chris Squire in the picture, though, we get a little extra likeability in the mix for me as a Yes fan. One thing this album did that I really liked is give "Aliens", which the world first heard at select Yes concerts, but which didn't make any Yes albums, and wasn't to my knowledge ever slated for a formal studio release in that context. I'd rather it had been developed as. Yes song, but it didn't seem like that was meant to be, so a professionally finished studio version from two prog giants from two of the best prog bands of all-time is about the best thing we could reasonably hope for, especially when we know in retrospect that Squire would soon pass away, so there wasn't going to be an opportunity to finish it with Billy Sherwood adding his input and performance in place of Hackett for a hypothetical Conspiracy III (Which might have been the second best option for a Squire song in that era next to putting it on a Yes album). There was no Conspiracy III.

Though Squire is listed on one song each on the first two Prog Collective album, the sort of defacto format for those albums has been that the new songs (So far, there are three albums consisting of only all new songs, one album with only cover songs, and one album with some of each) come from Sherwood in almost complete form, and then the tracks are sent to the guest players on each (Or Sherwood meets up with them to help record them) to add their parts.

So, while a Squire penned piece could have in theory wound up on a Prog Collective album, someone else working up most of the song and sending it to Billy is the exact opposite of the path a Prog Collective song usually takes on it's way to being placed on an album.

That means that going the Squackett route gives us a version of the song that isn't some bootleg of Squire and Oliver Wakeman playing it live in demo form, and was probably the only solid opportunity to give us a studio version at all. It crossed my mind that maybe in some alternate universe this could have ended up as a Yes song on From a Page, which was curated by Oliver Wakeman, but I doubt he would have done it without an existing vocal track from Squire recorded in a studio to put in there, and if such an isolated vocal track of studio quality exists, it's only because it was recorded for Squackett, so...

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this wasn't a perfect platform, but it was a platform that was available, and is better than nothing. And, while I know this viewpoint is far from universal, I actually really do like "Aliens".

I also have "The Summer Backwards", "Stormcasher", and "Can't Stop the Rain" marked in my personal collection as favorite tracks from this album.

You can hear Squire's influence on the writing of the music here and there, where for just a few seconds, a bit of a song reminds me of Squire's lone solo album, Fish Out of Water, which is a good thing in the context of a group that is literally two men's names combined, with Squire being one of them.

[Sam I Am]

This one fell a little flat for me and I was surprised. I am an enormous fan of both Hackett and Squire and had enjoyed their previous collaborations - but this one was really hit and miss for me.

[Soundwaveseeker]

I'm surprised a lot of people here don't go for this album too much. I guess I can see why to some extent, it doesn't tick as many Yes boxes as maybe some would have had it - it really is leaning on the Hackett side of things, actually I find it similar in format and feel to his album Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth (2009). I sometimes got confused about which track was on which album, there is some similarity. A similar sound, which I don't mind - I like Hackett's albums from this period, from Darktown to maybe recently. His last couple, though good, may be wearing of the current formula a bit and he may want to swish it around a bit. Squackett is a decent album, though that band name is a little ridiculous. Same with Sherwood's YOSO - not too keen on half-and-half names like that.

I remember a few interviews when the album came out with Prog magazine and the like that they were going for a more vocal/song album and mentioned people like Crosby Stills & Nash. So it wasn't a big prog-out supergroup thing that some were hoping for, maybe.

As for a second album that may have been in the early stages, Chris Squire did appear on Wolflight, Hackett's 2015 album - it one of his last appearances. I assume the track or tracks he's on may have been intended for inclusion on a second Squackett album.

[Roundabob]

I was always amazed that I wasn’t a big Asia fan. How could I not be blown away by a band composed of Howe, Wetton, Palmer, and Downes? Squackett leaves me feeling the same way. I had great expectations for this collaboration, but it fell short. There are plenty of great works by both of these guys, but it doesn’t show up on this album (to my ears).