OVER

I've always wanted to like it. Always felt that given my level of appreciation for his work, perhaps I even should like it. But viewed through a somewhat objective musical lens, this album is a misstep of the highest order. A self-pity party wrapped up in often less than stellar songs, unfulfilling arrangements, less than interesting riffing and lyrical content that crosses the line between admirable self-confession and just plain pseudo-intellectual misery rants.

"Crying Wolf" starts the album in a fairly straightforward rock and roll manner. The problem is that the riff is somewhat of a throwaway and reveals a tendency that plagues some of Hammill's post- Nadir work; whereby the conceptual overrides the end result or even musical value. It's Hammill having decided that Rikki Nadir deserves a voice in his music, but to what does that concept equate? Here, I'm afraid it fails to move the meter much at all. The riff is played with little intensity. The shortcomings of Hammill's electric guitar playing give way to the concept, and the possibilities of the music struggle underneath this pretext. There simply isn't enough there in the first place to then strip things down.

"Autumn" is perhaps the best piece of music on the album. A gorgeous, twisting and hauntingly melodic song which contemplates the values in growing older in a relationship. Still, something here keeps this from being a home run. In this case, I think the arrangements are a bit cluttered and Graham Smith takes over at times when I want to hear *this* song in a somewhat more sparse manner. This is sometimes a problem for me with Hammill's work. I'll find his unaccompanied live versions of songs to be absolutely mind boggling but the arrangements on the albums to be undisciplined and a victim of the more is less approach.

"Time Heals" makes evident just what pain Hammill was enduring during the recording of this album. And despite one of his worst musical shifts about halfway through this one into a two chord piano riff that just doesn't need life, I think I should state at this point that in my book he is to be commended. Commended for being able to finish this project during a time when he was clearly in tremendous pain. I suppose that, particularly in youth, most of us understand all too well the lack of logic that sometimes follows the heart, so granted it is with older eyes that I say this; but this song leaves me wondering if this woman deserved an entire album devoted to her? Hey! She ran off with your friend, man! Come on. Talk about "over." But instead Hammill begins to spend time on this album examining his own flaws. Even asking in "Alice" whether this is really the end of the story. Clearly a moment of hope amidst his heartbreak which fails to acknowledge the deeper issue at hand: What kind of woman leaves a seven year relationship and runs off with your friend? I can't help but feel a combination of sympathy for and frustration with Hammill at this point.

"Looking Glass" is a beautiful piece of work. For some reason it reminds me of Black Sabbath's "She's Gone" in that both songs seem to be rooted in unabashed sadness and seek to never leave a drop of hope on the floor for anything but loneliness. For some reason I find Hammill's delivery here to be solid but not on par with his very best. Can't really out my finger on why. It's a damned good track. I'll leave it at that. As is "Betrayed," which follows, featuring Hammill in a pure, raw form as only he can capture.

And that about does it. By the time I get through "Yoga" and "Lost and Found" I am ready to play "The Peel Sessions" and remind myself just what a genius Hammill could be on his own. On Over, he has revealed a side to his writing which, while entirely original, lacks defined musical passion and power. It's an album for his ex, not for me.

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