Godbluff vs Free Hand

Free Hand just can't compete with Godbluff.

Logan wrote: Ramble alert.  Like both, but Godbluff is more special to me. That said, I have to be in the right mindset for much of the music on that album as I can find Hammill's vocals on it to be so overwrought that it can take me out of the music. There are times when I've listened to music on it and his vocals have just jarred me out of it so much that I have stopped appreciating the music and instead felt an uncomfortable embarrassment at his theatrics (similar experience to watching a film and you are immersed and then something happens and you can't suspend your disbelief and you become analytical instead of just having it wash over you or you read a book and some bad grammar or other clunkiness pulls you out of the story and you become aware of yourself watching the page instead of the inner movie experience one can find when reading). At other times the vocals don't bother me at all. In general, I find earlier VdGG albums such as The Least We Can Do is Wave To Each Other (my traditional fave) much easier listening. As for Gentle Giant, the Free Hand title track, along with the In a Glass House title track, got me into GG, but I never fell for the album to the same extent as Acquiring the Taste or Three Friends or the self-titled, or In a Glass House and other GG albums despite loving various songs on the album. Said this many times before as VdGG often gets compared to GG (and not just because of the GG with or without the VD, haha, bit in the initials), but Gentle Giant was a band I got into very quickly and was my favourite band in the mid 2000s. VdGG, apart from a few songs, took me longer to really appreciate. I still have more GG albums (I purchased all the studio albums plus Playing the Fool very quickly). That said, VdGG has remained a regular part of my diet now for many more years. For quite a few years I was so burnt out on GG that I couldn't listen to them at all, but I am enjoying GG again (especially Acquiring the taste which was long my favourite). While GG and VdGG are often compared to each other, I think another later one also has many similar qualities -- Cardiacs. As I listened again to Godbluff earlier, I was thinking about A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (an album I was obsessed with not long ago).

Ramble alert.

Like both, but Godbluff is more special to me. That said, I have to be in the right mindset for much of the music on that album as I can find Hammill's vocals on it to be so overwrought that it can take me out of the music. There are times when I've listened to music on it and his vocals have just jarred me out of it so much that I have stopped appreciating the music and instead felt an uncomfortable embarrassment at his theatrics (similar experience to watching a film and you are immersed and then something happens and you can't suspend your disbelief and you become analytical instead of just having it wash over you or you read a book and some bad grammar or other clunkiness pulls you out of the story and you become aware of yourself watching the page instead of the inner movie experience one can find when reading).

At other times the vocals don't bother me at all. In general, I find earlier VdGG albums such as The Least We Can Do is Wave To Each Other (my traditional fave) much easier listening.

As for Gentle Giant, the Free Hand title track, along with the In a Glass House title track, got me into GG, but I never fell for the album to the same extent as Acquiring the Taste or Three Friends or the self-titled, or In a Glass House and other GG albums despite loving various songs on the album.

Said this many times before as VdGG often gets compared to GG (and not just because of the GG with or without the VD, haha, bit in the initials), but Gentle Giant was a band I got into very quickly and was my favourite band in the mid 2000s. VdGG, apart from a few songs, took me longer to really appreciate. I still have more GG albums (I purchased all the studio albums plus Playing the Fool very quickly). That said, VdGG has remained a regular part of my diet now for many more years. For quite a few years I was so burnt out on GG that I couldn't listen to them at all, but I am enjoying GG again (especially Acquiring the taste which was long my favourite).

While GG and VdGG are often compared to each other, I think another later one also has many similar qualities -- Cardiacs. As I listened again to Godbluff earlier, I was thinking about A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (an album I was obsessed with not long ago).

Edited by Logan - February 10 2018 at 17:54

GG

Free Hand - by a million miles. It's my favourite GG album and a 5* effort.

It is Godbluff this time around.

dr wu23 wrote: For Bearded Bard.....so what exactly is the 'statement' that Godbluff is making...? ;)

according to Peter Hammill the band tried to get what is called a "peak experience" on an album

I'm genuinely surprised Free Hand is leading...I set this one up ready to see people catapult VDGG ahead!

BaldJean wrote: Kingsnake wrote: There are a few bands, I never really could get into: Tool, Muse, Radiohead, Vandergraaf Generator, Godspeed You Black Emperor. Nothing negative, so I'm not going to bash bands, but it just never really appealed to me. Maybe it's the dark undertones, the lack of romanticism, the lack of pastoral themes. Too modern, not playful,/joyful enough? Anyhow, I would go for Free Hand anytime, anyplace. I maybe have played this album at least a dozen times a year for the last 25 years. Maybe the most played album by me (with Thick as a Brick, Octoberon and Mirage). my dear Sir, you apparently never really listened to VdGG, else you would have noticed how incredibly playful they are. many of the lyrics are tongue-in-cheek (especially some of the very dark ones), and the music is very playful too. who else but VdGG would start a song as a fugue and end it as a reggae? and they incorporated many dances into their music too, like cha-cha, bossa nova or fandango. and many of their melodies are very pastoral indeed. no, my dear Sir, you are entirely wrong with your evaluation of VdGG. and this inherent irony of VdGG's music is very romantic indeed. have you never heard the term "romantic irony"?

Neither are in my top 5 albums for each band, but head to head I'd definitely go with Godbluff