Devil Take the Hindmost

"Devil Take the Hindmost" carries a darker, more urgent energy than much of Holdsworth's catalog, though it channels that tension through the same impossibly fluid guitar voice that defines his entire body of work. The tempo is brisk but not frantic, driven by a rhythmic foundation that has a slightly ominous forward momentum — the kind that suggests something inevitable approaching. Holdsworth's lines here are more angular than usual, darting through chromatic passages that create genuine unease before resolving into something hauntingly beautiful. The production is characteristic of his mid-period work: keyboards layered beneath to provide harmonic color, the guitar sitting in the mix with that signature sustain that makes individual notes feel like they're exhaling. There's a quality to the piece that suggests a wager being made at great cost — not reckless, but fully aware of the stakes. The title implies a philosophy of decisive action, and the music follows through, moving with the kind of purposeful momentum that doesn't pause to reconsider. This track rewards close listening on headphones, where the spatial relationships between guitar phrases and the supporting harmonic structure become audible as a kind of three-dimensional architecture. It belongs to the small circle of guitar-centered instrumental music that refuses to be background sound — it demands engagement, offering in return a tonal world that very few musicians have ever inhabited. Holdsworth devotees consider tracks like this proof that the instrument's expressive ceiling had never truly been found before he started playing.