PAWN HEARTS

FIVE STARS!!! easy. This is not an album you want to pass up. Hard to get into at first, but oh so sweet and rewarding after a few hard listens. Hammil and co are so original and unique, no one sounds like these guys. Sometimes soft and melodic, sometimes ANGRY and dissonant, other times somewhere in between.

The first song, Lemmings, is the hardest to get into, but after all a truly awesome song. It features some spacy melodies, and some haunting vocals, great organ and sax interplay though. Cool lyrics too, how many songs are there out there about the perpetual suicides of Lemmings? Well, of course its all a metaphor for society in the end, but still, very original. "Cog" is a very strange piece of music, the first melody in it is very dissonant and scary, followed up immediately by a softer (still scary) melody. All in all, this is a very haunting, almost epic song, so so good.

Man-Erg is perhaps the ultimate showcase of all the aspects of VdGG's sound, with lyrics about a man being torn in two by two sides of his personality (listen to it on this site, why don't you?). Starting off slow and melodic, sad with piano and Hammil's great voice. After about 2 and a half minutes of this, another riff kicks in: dissonant and heavy, this is VdGG's aggressive side. A short little verse here, some cool screaming from Hammil. This part is great, may take some getting used to though. Afterwards comes another kind of slow melodic part, very good. The "But I am Dommed" melody may turn some people off, if you are listening, you know what I'm talking about. It sounds like a melody from a movie soundtrack, and at first I hated it, but it's grown on me a little. Anyway, after a while, the first emotional melody kicks in, and as the song ends, that first aggressive riff is heard meshing with the emotional part, showing the true madness of the man's personalities battling each other. Eventually the aggressive one takes over and ends the song. Ooh. Goosebumps. A real classic of prog.

Now, if Man-Erg is the ultimate showcase of the band's sound, A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers is their ultimate song. Hammil and the boys try their hand at the fabled twenty minute epic, and when you think about it, this is one of the earliest. This is from '71, Supper's Ready, CttE, Thick as a Brick are all from '72. As far as I can tell, the only 20 minute suites that came before this are Tarkus and Lizard, but neither is as good as this IMO.

Anyway, the song starts off with a very dreamy melody, very nautical, and fitting with the Lighthouse theme, which is once again very original subject matter. Great melody, one of the best ever. Then comes Pictures/Lighthouse, and this is the lowpoint of the song. Very quiet and atmospheric, and cool at times (sax immitating foghorns, anyone?), but it is too long- 3 minutes without Hammil! It's not that bad though. Then comes a reprise of Eyewitness, great. SHM is a jazzier part, not too jazzy though. Just right, cool melodies, great lyrics. Presence of the Night is one of the other high points of the song, featuring emotionally racked singing from Hammil. The melodies here are AWESOME and EPIC, and the airy saxophone is awesome. Kosmos Tours is some dissonant organ sax play, pretty cool, scary though. Eventually, Custard's Last Stand comes in, and the first two syllables of the slow melody are very deceptive: you think it will be cheerful and upbeat, when in reality it turns out to be dark and sad sounding. All in all not one of the best parts of the songs, something cheerful would have been better in this "sea" of sadness and anger and scariness. Ah well. Eventually, The Clot Thickens with SCARY melodies and riffs, freaking weird man. This part may be a little long, they repeat the scary riff without vocals too many times. This part reminds of "Willow Farm" in Genesis's Supper's Ready, the way it turns all of a sudden to bouncy kind of dark gothic music. Similar, but this is darker and scarier. Anyway, after about 3 minutes, all the dissonance gives way to soft piano chords, and Land's End (Sineline) comes in, with AWESOME lyrics and singing, breathtaking altogether. This cheerfulness is just the thing they needed to end this epic perfectly. We go Now is just the previous section without vocals and a crazy Fripp guitar solo, it might be mellotron though, I'm not sure though. It also has some great choir vocals at the end. Truly awesome.

So anyway, this is one awesome album, an underrated classic of prog, should be in the top 10. All the songs are awesome, although they take a few listens for the greatness to sink in. Altogether, an easy 5 stars. These guys are amazing.