Coming from a fine pedigree of musicians and musically inclined parents, U.K. prog-rocker John Hackett returned in 2020 with a fantastic D-I-Y album recorded during the Pandemic of 2020 called The Piper Plays His Tune on his own Hacktrax recording company. Although he has worked extensively in decades gone by, performing his trademark flute sound on albums by his well-regarded brother Steve Hackett, John’s new 2020 10-track album is quite unexpected in some regards. Writing, performing all the instruments and singing lead on all the songs, the entire album is quite a feat, and surprisingly it sounds like a full-on prog-rock band. Prog in this case ventures into far-off prog influences like Brian Wilson as well as shades of brother Steve’s Genesis with another influence also being the late great Chris Squire, who I know would like this album. John's guitar and keyboard / programming skills are also in fine form here. The whole thing was made solo because of the pandemic he couldn’t record with his band. The whole year was crazy but the net result is this album of brilliant music-making. The Piper Plays His Tune is right up there in a place among the great pop albums of 2020.