the project rapidly imploded<\/a>. Thankfully, Squackett was a low-key lark on an indie label, resulting in a far more relaxed vibe.<\/p>\nThe lineup for A Life In A Day<\/i> consisted of Squire and Hackett with Roger King (keyboards) and Amanda Lehmann (backing vocals) from Hackett\u2019s solo band, plus drummer Jeremy Stacey, who had worked with Squire on Swiss Choir<\/i>. King also served as the album\u2019s producer and is credited as a co-writer with Hackett and Squire on every track.<\/p>\n
The resulting album is confident, yet rather tepid, mainstream-adjacent progressive pop, with occasional exceptions. The first exception is the opening, expansive (6:35) title track\u2014the album\u2019s clear highlight\u2014an assertive thumper with interesting string accents and dynamic changes. Hackett delivers alternately muscular and quite pretty lead guitar lines, while Squire lays back until the fifth minute, wherein he delivers some genuinely squirrelly bass under an active jam. The song also incorporates a pinch of Floydian drama in its airy main theme, and Hackett\u2019s lead vocals are serviceable enough for the material.<\/p>\n
Squire moves into the spotlight for \u201cTall Ships,\u201d another medium-scale (6:18) piece that opens with a strong Squire-Stacey theme, with Hackett playing rather jazzy licks purely as an accent. Squire\u2019s \u201clead bass\u201d dominates and his vocals are quite audible, which unfortunately isn\u2019t the case very often on this album. The lyrics, it must be said, are pretty standard prog fare here and throughout; vaguely poetic fantasy-tinged babble that serves its purpose without earning much more attention than that.<\/p>\n
From there, the album gets progressively less progressive. This shouldn\u2019t surprise; as shown by GTR and \u201980s Yes, despite their decades of prog cred, both of these men were perfectly comfortable steering their musical ship closer to the mainstream. \u201cDivided Self\u201d is a rather Tears For Fears-ish 4:06 number with hooks and choruses bracketing an exotic, extended Hackett solo. Then \u201cAliens\u201d excavates a Squire song that was played live on Yes\u2019 2008-09 tour but never recorded, seemingly for good reason; it\u2019s a sleepy, plaintive tune with a silly sci-fi lyric, elevated only by well-arranged vocals.<\/p>\n
\u201cSea Of Smiles\u201d opens with choral vocals and \u201cAwaken\u201d-esque bells and vibes before the rhythm section enters and it develops into another rather prog-poppy number, with nice drive and strong vocals on the repeating chorus. \u201cThe Summer Backwards\u201d explores a folky direction; it\u2019s pleasant if rather lightweight, though you feel Squire\u2019s hand in the arrangement of the song\u2019s final minute, with offsetting guitar and choral vocals.<\/p>\n
Hackett mentioned Led Zeppelin as an influence on his songwriting for Squackett, and it\u2019s hard to hear it at first, but it comes to the fore on \u201cStormchaser,\u201d whose meaty riffage and menacing vibe Hackett had debuted on tour in 2009. Still, Squire\u2019s fat, active bass is the most interesting thing about it. Penultimate track \u201cCan\u2019t Stop the Rain\u201d is a ponderous mid-tempo number with overly processed-and-filtered vocals, with Hackett\u2019s acoustic-then-electric-then-acoustic solo the only diversion.<\/p>\n
Closer \u201cPerfect Love Song\u201d finds Hackett adopting Howe\u2019s favorite late-career motif\u2014arcing, reverbed high notes\u2014before moving into a busy, intricate riff. The duo\u2019s unison vocals and Squire\u2019s insistent bass line steadily push the track higher and wider, even as riffs and the chorus repeat; much like the album it\u2019s on, it\u2019s solid enough without going anywhere very special.<\/p>\n
Squackett\u2014whose tossed-off name says it all in terms of the casual nature of the collaboration\u2014never toured and Squire passed just three years later, so A Life In A Day<\/i> stands as the pairing\u2019s only release. If you enjoy middle-of-the-road prog-pop assembled quickly by a pair of old pros, it\u2019s perfectly fine, and occasionally better than that; just keep your expectations modest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[11151],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-47310","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-squackett","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47310"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}