GODBLUFF

Van Der Graaf Generator

Eclectic Prog

4.47 | 2341 ratings

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Rune2000
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator

After originally being somewhat discouraged by what I heard on Pawn Hearts I still decided to give Godbluff a shot. I'm glad that I did since it became my gateway to this quite spectacular band!

It's interesting that Van Der Graaf Generator pretty much missed out on progressive rock's golden year's and still managed to regroup towards the second half of the 70's and record four more albums before splitting up. Just imagining doing all this in less than a decade is mind-boggling and still the result is right in front of us! On top of that Peter Hammill had his steady stream of solo material which has pretty much lasted up to the beginning of the previous decade, but I digress.

When the band recorded this album there was so much creative magic in the air that some of it has even made it to the CD I have at home! The Undercover Man starts things off nicely with the most atmospheric intro the band ever featured on an album. The whole piece leaves me screaming for more and fortunately the wait is not long since Scorched Earth is almost as enjoyable as it's successor but with somewhat less momentum. The Sleepwalkers finishes the album on another highlight and although the main melody section is quite repetitive I've always been a sucker for intricate melodic arrangements so I don't mind that it's repeated for almost 9 minutes straight!

After all this praise I still hesitate giving this album my highest regards. This reason is based entirely on the fact that Godbluff hasn't really grown so much over the years and although my first impression was spectacular I was hoping that the album would have opened itself up even more but surprisingly it actually had the opposite effect so far. A great introductory album but you should search elsewhere for the higher dosage of that Van Der Graaf Generator sound!

***** star songs: The Undercover Man (7:25) The Sleepwalkers (10:31)

**** star songs: Scorched Earth (9:48) Arrow (9:45)

Rune2000 | 4/5 | 2010-2-17

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