PAWN HEARTS

Pawn Hearts came less than a year after H to He and consists of three long songs. "Lemmings (Including Cog)" is classic VdGG from the get-go. It's foreboding and unsettling. Hammill's voice is delicate and powerful, and the instrumental elements are as brash as ever. In its midsection, the song shifts to an irregular, lurching rhythm. Saxophones honk and squawk, heavily-distorted organ dances downward, the drumming is both completely mad and incredibly deft. After briefly revisiting the opening theme, "Lemmings" ends on an extended organ drone, with quiet flutes and the gentle clattering of ride cymbals.

In contrast to the chaotic opener, "Man-Erg" features a beautiful piano as its lead instrument, and Hammill's vocals are almost orthodox. There's an uplifting, hopeful feel to this song's first few minutes. Around three minutes in, the song takes a sharp turn. The distorted organ and piercing saxophones are oppressive, and Hammill shouts his lyrics like a madman. This was the first Van der Graaf Generator song I ever heard, and that one moment of the transition between the first and second parts of this song has been massively influential on both my tastes and my own songwriting style.

That evil-sounding passage is brief, though. For much of the song's final five minutes, the tempo is relaxed, and there's a tension between the hopefulness of the song's opening and the pessimism of its second part. At the song's close, themes from both those sections interpolate, underscoring the song's themes of the conflict of light and dark within people.

Pawn Hearts ends with the longest song the band ever recorded. The 23-minute "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" is a singular achievement in the field of progressive rock, and it was the ultimate culmination of the sound of this era of the band.

Much like "Pioneers over c", this suite was stitched together in the studio, and the band did not play it in its entirety in a live setting until 2013. (It was played piecemeal for a Belgian TV show in 1972 and then stitched together for broadcast.) It also features the band's most experimental tendencies. They supposedly used every recording device in the studio for this piece, and Banton pushed beyond his usual piano and organ to play synthesizer and Mellotron on this track.

This suite opens with echoing electric piano, and Hammill's voice is lightly processed. It sounds distant and lonely, underscoring the isolation of the titular lighthouse-keeper. Warm sax gently floats beneath the piano and vocal, creating a sense of wariness. This section dissolves in a moment of eerie drone, as saxophones bellow like ships in the distance, and a brief organ passage leads the track back to the opening theme.

Jackson's saxophones underpin the next section. Hammill's vocals and Banton's distorted organs contrast against the reedy warmth. This passage, though, is followed by something quiet, understated, and lonely. It swells with bitterness and power before barreling forward into an off-kilter, tumbling instrumental passage where piano, organ, and synth wobble around each other in a disorienting manner.

The mellowest part of the suite follows. Sweet organ and delicate vocals provide a rare moment of optimism. It's an introspective passage, and it adds wonderful diversity to this piece.

Afterward, though, is some of the darkest, most chaotic music the band ever recorded. Distorted vocals, walls of dense keyboards, and an unstoppable, bouncing rhythm combine to form an oppressive atmosphere. Banton's use of the Mellotron was a brilliant move here; the swooping string effects complement the furious backing storm.

If you thought Rush's "Fountain of Lamneth" had some hard cuts in it, just listen to the transition between part eight ("The Clot Thickens") and part nine ("Land's End (Shoreline)"). There was no elegant way to shift from the depression and angst to the gentle piano in the final part, so it's just a hard stop.

There's a sense of hopeful, upward movement, and the lyrics are ambiguous as to the lighthouse-keeper's ultimate fate. "We Go Now" is a majestic and grand finale, and the closing organ solo is gorgeous.

When Pawn Hearts was reissued in 2005, a number of the songs recorded for the original double-disc vision of the album were included as bonus tracks. "Theme One" is a peppy instrumental written by George Martin (The Beatles' producer, not the guy who still isn't finished with The Winds of Winter. Come on, George, it's been twelve years since the last book!) that was used as the theme music for BBC Radio 1. "W" is a solid, folky cut with a depressed but catchy chorus. A rerecorded (and in my view, inferior) version was released as a single in 1972. "Angle of Incidents" was written by drummer Guy Evans, and it's a noisy, dissonant flurry of drums and saxophone that I can't say I'm unhappy was cut from the record. Flute-and-sax player David Jackson's "Ponker's Theme" is a short, lounge-y jazz piece that also would have added nothing. "Diminutions", from organist Hugh Banton, is an eerie, atmospheric piece that could be described as proto-drone. Overall, I'm very glad Pawn Hearts was cut down to one LP.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2023/07/10/deep-dive-van-der-graaf-generator/