THE QUIET ZONE / THE PLEASURE DOME

Though I am tempted to give every VdGG album five stars, even I can admit that this one is not perfect. I can't exactly find the right words to say why I find this one slightly inferior to their other works, but for some reason I just prefer the others. Though I miss the organ and sax, i love the violins and Graham Smith does add a lot to the album. The violin is used at times like a lead guitar would be, with wah effects and such. However, because of the absence of the sax, the jazz elements in the music are also gone. On this album, the music is carried by the violin, along with piano. The first four songs here are entitled The Quiet Zone. Of these, standouts for me are the first two, Lizard Play and The Habit of the Broken Heart, both of which feature some excellent violin work. The second half is The Pleasure Dome, which has my favourite track from this album, which is Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever, where multi layered violin adds a classical feel to the music. Vocally, Hammill seems to screech and scream less than usual, which for me is disappointing as I always loved the agony in his voice when he did that. The music tends to be much less intense than their other albums. Like I said, I absolutely adore VdGG and I am tempted to call everything they've done a masterpiece, but here I will resist the urge and only give it four stars. A great album, but less intense and moving then the others from this great band.