WORLD RECORD

The progressive party was kind of over in 1976 and most bands were looking for some sort of adeption to the new age. VdGG continued with a more simplistic approach with less psychedelics and more songlike structures. Still present are the dark Hammil vocals and the windsection with extended solo's of David Jackson. Drummer Guy Evans could have done better on this album, his drums aren't very noticable. This is quite strange, because his drums were great on previous records.

The first two tracks of the album are low-paced, yet energetic rock tracks with fierce vocals of Peter Hammill and long solo's by Jackson. Perhaps the style of these songs is a bit minimalistic, but the songs do work if you listen to them more often. Masks is however the first track to stand out. A great melodic song with nice vocals and a bit more progressive then the previous two songs. Meurglys III, The Songwriter's Guild is one of VdGG least known epics, but especially the first 15 minutes are very strong! This is the real classic VdGG with intelligent song-writing, outstanding theatric performance and some nice avant-garde influences. The ending section with the reagge like improvision is a bit dull though. Peter Hammill's guitar solo is very strange (perhaps a bit amateurish) and I don't wonder anymore why VdGG never had many guitarsolo's. Wondering, the last of the album is however one of my favourite VdGG songs of all time. This heroic song with gentle classical chord progressions reminds a bit of the nice parts of Man-Erg, though Wondering is more concetraed on the majestic heroic celebration kind of thing.

Recently I changed my oppinion about this VdGG album. It was my first album of the band and it's much easier now to understand this album, now I know most other albums of them. World Record might be perceived as a letdown, but with some extra spins there's a lot to be found under the dust. The dust being the bit bleak recording sound and perhaps the minimalistic opening-tracks. The performance of the band itself is very strong and somehow this album is a bit more relaxing then their other albums. On Masks and side two of the record the band shows it can still right some masterfull material, with the first two songs falling the 'just good' cathegory. Three and a halve stars for this one.

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