A GROUNDING IN NUMBERS

It's been interesting reading the other, personal, heart felt reviews and commentaries on this new VDGG release. I believe it to be quite a compliment to all concerned, especially to Peter Hammill and the band, that there is still this much excitement over a "golden age" era progressive project.

In reviewing the music - not withstanding other reviews - this is really good stuff. It is (IMHO) what I believe this last incarnation of VDGG has been shooting for. Much closer to the style that they perhaps imagined from its inception. Very rhythmically complex, yet short, concise song structures. The instrumentation is heavy guitar, with still the trad sound of organ, drums and various ways of playing bass - much more real electric bass. Peter's vocals are as strong as ever. Lyrics still as sharp as ever. Guy Evans is simply at his top stride here.

The thing is this, if you expect this to be sounding like the aforementioned "golden era" you will be disappointed. I believe that not only does the band NOT want to sound like that, they simply couldn't. Too much changes in life on planet Earth to not have a different musical view of it all. Now, after maybe leaning toward the "new for newness sake" side of this argument, I will have to say; this album would get really close to 5 stars if it had a soloist, be it in the form of sax/flute or violin, or even a sensitive, relevant guitarist. I personally miss the long songs, and I really miss the sax. I believe that is what drew me to VDGG in the first place, and its demise seems to leave a bit of a void.

Without wanting to get into an argument with other reviewers, let's forget about VDGG appealing much to the younger generation. We hope they would, only if it led the younger listeners back to the beginning to appreciate what's gone before BUT! First off, it's been shown that they don't support their bands financially at all - record sales at an all time low on supposed #1 charting albums. Secondly, let's get it straight, as much as I hate to admit, anyone of our hero groups from the 70's could make the most perfect modern rock album, representing the exact desires of the producers of this time, and nothing would happen. The media's only attention is drawn to what's young and new - it's kind of always been that way, and us old hippies sort of can blame ourselves for this, as that's what we preached all of those years ago. So, comparing this to modern, supposed mega record sellers, is not relevant.

OK, enough of my little foray onto the soapbox. This is simply a wonderful outing, representing the latest version of the dream into reality called Van Der Graff Generator. God bless them for still having the vision to produce good music, regardless of the outcome.