PH7

pH7 sees Hammill retain the sparse backing group of The Future Now but softening the sound a little, incorporating more soft acoustic songs alongside the New Wave experimentations. The proggiest material here is probably the closing pair of songs, Mr X (Gets Tense) and Faculty X, on which Graham Smith's violin ably evokes the tension required by the song. Hammill's lyrics are as insightful and thoughtful as ever on songs like Handicap and Equality and Not For Keith, and his singing is as emotionally genuine as usual. Still, it seems rather slight compared to both the firey The Future Now and the more progressive A Black Box, though not enough to slip down to three stars.