Although Steve Hackett had made several albums under his own name since his departure from Genesis, 1981's Cured was the closest thing yet to a true solo Hackett album.
Having disbanded the group with whom he's recorded two successful solo albums -- Spectral Mornings and Defector -- Steve retained only keyboard player Nick Magnus to help out on this effort.
Magnus played keyboards, Hackett handled guitar and bass, and the drums were provided by a drum machine.
But the most noticeable change was in the vocals.
Previous albums had featured the occasional vocal excursion by the guitarist, but Cure was the first album on which Hackett handled all the lead vocals himself.
Combined with the revamped musical backing and a more straightforward songwriting style, the new sound threw some Hackett devotees for a loop.
In fact, much of the album was rather commercial-sounding pop music, which bore little resemblance to Hackett's previous work.
Still, given a chance, Hackett's new sound was quite compelling, especially when he played the songs live.
The main concessions to Hackett's earlier style were the instrumentals "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare" and "A Cradle of Swans," the latter being a solo classical guitar piece.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hope I Don't WakeSteve Hackett | Steve Hackett | Play | 03:47 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 2 | Picture PostcardSteve Hackett | Steve Hackett | Play | 03:54 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 3 | Can't Let GoSteve Hackett | Steve Hackett | Play | 05:42 | 13 MB | 37 MB |
| 4 | The Air-Conditioned NightmareSteve Hackett | Steve Hackett | Play | 04:08 | 9 MB | 29 MB |
| 5 | Funny FeelingSteve Hackett, Nick Magnus | Steve Hackett | Play | 04:06 | 9 MB | 29 MB |
| 6 | A Cradle of SwansSteve Hackett | Steve Hackett | Play | 02:49 | 6 MB | 13 MB |
| 7 | Overnight SleeperSteve Hackett, Nick Magnus | Steve Hackett | Play | 04:37 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 8 | Turn Back TimeSteve Hackett | Steve Hackett | Play | 04:23 | 10 MB | 24 MB |
| 33 mins | 77 MB | |||||
| 33 mins | 218 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Acock | Engineer, Keyboards, Producer |
| 2 | John Hackett | Flute, Keyboards |
| 3 | Steve Hackett | Composer, Guitar, Keyboards, Primary Artist, Producer, Publishing, Vocals |
| 4 | Nick Magnus | Composer, Keyboards, Producer, Synthesizer |
| 5 | Kim Poor | Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |