In a year where I doubled-down on my love for Genesis, it was refreshing to see two of the band’s former members (I guess they’re all former members now) put out incredibly strong solo work. I’m still trying to wend my way through Peter Gabriel’s I/O with its dozen different mixes, but there was so such hesitation with The Circus And The Nighwhale, the latest studio effort and first concept album from Steve Hackett. Immediately ear-catching and stuffed to the gills with incredible guitar playing, Hackett sounds like he took all those years keeping the prog-version of Genesis alive and distilled it all into an album that could have sat side by side with their best work while maintaining a modern, rock edge.