VITAL

This album is very RAW, infact more raw than the earlier albums, cause this is a live album, filled with imho the best songs they ever recorded. It starts off with an unreleased song called Ship Of Fools and what a song it is, Hammill screams his lungs out. The next song is Still Life and this version is MUCH better than the studio version, much more true to the lyrics (its about his ex-wife, and when recorded in 76 they split, and now it have more substance than on Still Life) The next song is Last Frame from The Quiet Zone, this one is also better than on the studio version, then comes an unreleased song called Mirror Images, this one was later recorded on PH7, but this version is much more sublime and rock`s much more than the ph7 version, Then we get the BIG medley which starts of with A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers, Oh man what a stunning version, It grabs your balls and never let go, hot damn what a freak out version, this song is worth the album alone, then it glides into Sleepwalkers which is stunning as always, Then comes another unreleased song called Door, a left over from the Quiet Zone, a decent song, but probably the weakest of em, Then we get yet an unreleased song called Urban, also very good then slides into Killer which is a song i never liked that much, but its Ok, then the album rounds off with an incredible version of Nadir`s Big Chance from Hammill`s solo album with the same title, A great way to close to concert with. Overall A very raw and punchy record, By the way the sound quality is much better on the remastered version, where i found the earlier version a bit tad and muffly in sound.

Buy buy buy this now if you like van der graaf generator, It is also a very good introduction to the band....