PAWN HEARTS

Van Der Graaf Generator might be the most original progressive rock band from the 70s, along with King Crimson and Gentle Giant. Until this point, they were known for their depressive and deeply introspective music, a sound that either only could come out from lost seas or the emptiest places from outer space.

Pawn Hearts it's not only the band's peak, it's also one of the masterpieces of the prog genre. The album contains three long musical pieces (a style that Yes would use twice later on), and touches themes like loneliness, alienation and depression. Many point out the political aspect of the album, but it's a merely superficial factor compared with the psychosis and despair presented in the entirety of the record.

Lemmings starts the album in a breathtaking way, while Hammil shows us his vocal range in the lapse of 20 seconds. The suite develops into a dilema about the meaning of life and how others just don't question it until the moment they die. There's an interlude (Cog) for the taste of heavy ears, but the essence of the piece it's poetic and programmatic, culminating in the last few minutes with a combination of organ and drum sounds that create a scene that ends with the protagonist jumping from the cliff, finally hitting the ground. This sole moment surpass what King Crimson tried in Moonchild by any means.

Man-Erg seems like the typical ballade piece from the rest of VDGG discography (Refugees, House With No Door, The Undercover Man), with a moving piano section and Hammil's vocals sounding like a passionate Bowie. But after 3 minutes in, everything falls into chaos, with powerful drums and a majestic sax, like a mermaid in the middle of the ocean while the boat sinks. Finally the chaotic motive and the "commercial" one get mixed in the end, like a brilliant revelation at the end of the tunnel.

A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers it's the longest piece in the album (23 minutes long), but don't expect it to be like an epic and gorgeous piece like Close to the Edge or Supper's Ready, this one is raw, quiet, and yet beautiful. Just like the waves, the piece advance with softer and heavier passages as it goes on. Its structure and sound is clearly a love letter to german romanticism from the past centuries, representing the most precious thing of the human being, emotions, in this case, sadness. The ending is ambiguous on purpose, leaving the audience to interpretate it, does the protagonist finally find happiness? Or does he just kill himself and gets rid of his life?

What we have here it's a highly phylosophical record in all its rule, flirting with galactic aesthetic with the use of mellotron and the amazing (yet reserved) work of Fripp's guitar. But after all, what we're hearing is just a man drowning, that stops screaming for help to eventually accept his feat.