THE CALM (AFTER THE STORM)

In '93 PH made a) loud and b) calm compilation of his solo material up to late 80's. To me this is clearly better one. Hammill is so intimate and almost painfully open in songs like these. It's not TOO calm and soft - his 90's output includes some much mellower and more boring songs than in this selection. Besides, many 'calm' PH songs have a certain tension just beneath the surface and in e.g. 'Stranger Still', 'On Tuesdays' and 'Autumn' the tension also breaks that surface. Two tracks from the 'keyboards & vocals only' -album And Close as This are the calmest here. It must be noted that versions of 'Birds', 'Again', 'Just Good Friends' and 'If I Could' are from Love Songs (1984).

It could be said that the earliest PH albums are not represented too well; emphasis seems to be in 80's. But then again this serves nicely for those who want to concentrate more on 70's (and 90's-) and are satisfied with these pickings from albums like Sitting Targets or Skin. As a compilation by PH himself, simply 'the best of me' would have probably been better idea than a slightly pretentious loud/calm dicotomy. A generous set anyway, and a good way to start with PH. (On the cover is an interesting tiny gallery of pieces from PH covers - it just looks very messy.)