WORLD RECORD

A transitional album for Van der Graaf Generator, this one, with Hammill's electric guitar playing more of a presence than on any previous album (the album's longest track, Meurglys III, is even named after his guitar!) and his personal issues seep through into the lyrics to an occasionally uncomfortable extent. Recorded extremely soon after Still Life - to the point where the band don't really seem to have had time to nail down the tracks to the extent they usually would - the album was of course completed in the midst of the events that Hammill would later explore overtly on his solo album Over, and the lyrics to songs like Masks suggest a certain amount of personal turmoil.

This would be the last VdGG album until Present to feature the classic lineup, Banton and Jackson leaving after its completion, and I have to say that it's probably a good thing the band got that shakeup when it did - although it's still an album I have a lot of time for, I have to confess that those who are not as much of a VdGG fan as I am may find it significantly less than essential. Aside from the transitional nature of the album, the production has sounded rather off on all the versions I've heard (Guy Evans' drum sound is particularly thin), and there's a sense fatigue about the music which suggests that the punishing recording and touring schedule that VdGG had adopted from Godbluff onwards had taken its toll. Still, though the reconvened VdGG didn't burn all that long, you can't say it didn't burn brightly.