PAWN HEARTS

Pawn Hearts truly deserves the album of the month rating in my lists, what the heck, let's make it a few months. Three songs, which two are absolute diamonds and one fairly good song. There are a lot of great albums that took some time to grow on me, but this one was just an instant mindblower.

Peter 'Arry Hammill has confirmed his place as one of the greatest vocalists of all ti'me, not to talk about the compositions and lyrics. Rest of the band just rocks, simply. I usually don't care so much about huge amount of sax or horns, but Jackson's blows fit perfectly into the image of the music. Van Der Graaf Generatos is very dark prog. No melancholy like King Crimson or devastately like Porcupine Tree, but in it's very own twisted and crooked way. It can be also very beautiful, very gloomy, very deep and very something, just name a feeling in random and you'l find it from the depths of the Generator.

Lemmings, is the one fairly good song I mentioned. The vocal arrangements are the highlight of the song and it has some nice piano and stuff. On some other album, this woulb be the top material, but alongside with those two other ones, it's just ok.

Man Erg, here you have THE Piano and the vocals, the lyrics, just can't get enough of it. It pretty hard to write a reasonable review about something that just can't be defined with words. Just listen to it. I don't think that i have heard so nice piano on any other record. Also the ending of Plague is from the keyboard kingdom(that was a lame idiom I know). The refugees are also mentioned in the song, possibly a sister-piece for the one in The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other?

But then, ok, i try to chill myself out. The Plague Of The Lighthouse Keepers reaches something like my ultimate top-5, in any music. The epic and mentally unstable tale about a... lighthouse keeper who i think is pretty lonely, duh.

The ten sequences of the song, are all very strong and differerent individuals. The narrative opening, the drum-sax duels by David Jackson and Guy Evans, the distand foghorns, scenes where the protagonist is a bit losing it, the crazied feelings driven by 'Arry's insane mouthing, piano dominated screams for help and hope and the silent and isolated monologues trying to reach the following generations. Epic huh? Well it sure is, it sure is.

Enough of me chanting this one into heavens, just get your hands into this album and do the chanting yourselves.