PAWN HEARTS

This is probably their most complex record and therefore not the easiest album to get into. For me this album and the previous one "H To He, Who Am The Only One" are my favourites from the band. What brings this record up a notch (for me) is the concept that the record revolves around. I would suggest reading inpraiseoffolly's review for some interesting thoughts on that.

The first song "Lemmings (including cog)" features some crazy sax melodies and the organ play really adds to the full sound.Tempo and mood changes are abundant in this song, and Peter's vocals are all over the place, from soft to theatrical to yelling. A thoughtful song about choices we are sometimes faced with, like whether we follow the crowd and continue to be lemmings or cogs in the system or do we take a stand.

"Man Erg" is my favourite and not surprisingly the most emotional song for me as well. We get piano, organ, drums and reserved vocals creating a dark melody for 3 minutes until things get very noisy and chaotic. The melody that comes out of that gets slower and slower until the song changes again with calm vocals, good drumming, piano and some nice sax melodies.

"A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" is an epic that was pieced together in the studio and apparently unperformable live. Planetmellotron.com talks about how the band was told to play this song on a Belgian TV show. They filmed them playing it in pieces and then spliced it all together in the editing room. Needless to say this is an amazing song that is all over the map and features some great performances from all involved, including Mr.Fripp who ends the song with an outstanding guitar solo ! There is even a good dose of mellotron during the "The Clot Thickens" section.

This is not the place to start for those new to VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR in fact it's taken me a long time to finally offer up that fifth star.