NONE OF THE ABOVE

This umpteenth album from one of the most prolific songwriter is yet another typical album (as if such a thing could exist coming from such an eclectic artist as Hammill), and is a quite reflective and deeply personal album. The songs are always quiet, melancholic and have solemn quality about them. In some ways, you could imagine that Leonard Cohen could have written such an album if he had a progressive touch as Hammill does. Do not get the wrong idea, I am not calling TAG a prog album per se, but clearly there are strong evidence of this at times. If I mention Cohen, it is because outside of one track, Like Veronica (a much faster, harder and tougher track), the album is much like a slow, serene, supremely confident, but at the same time full of anguish, uncertainty in its lyrics. The tracks are up to 90% of their length sung, the instrumentation is rather sparse, even a bit basic and mostly acoustic, but there is not one shadow of a doubt that we are in the Hammill planet realm.

Certainly a beautiful album, with its all too personal songs (even if they are sometimes easy to relate to), this is an album I would recommend only to Hammill aficionados but not to the casual VdGG fan, expecting some of that group's remnants.

During his long career, Peter delivered lots of albums: some with a full band which could easily be correlated with the Graaf work, some with a smaller structure which were more personal and others with Peter holding most of the instruments. These efforts were more intimate.

In terms of band structure, "None Of The Above" belongs to the latter category. The whole burden relying on the vocal parts. This is fine during the opening and moving "Touch & Go" but much more of a problem when "Naming The Rose" has finished.

Peter's voice is always as magical as ever, but most songs are a bit of some second tier ones. The worst of all "Somebody Bad Enough" is truly embarrassing. What happened, Peter? A very poor melody combined with some bossa nova background music! Quite nightmarish.

My favourite song from this album is "Tango for One". It is another one of these touching songs, like there's only Peter to deliver. A light structure but such an emotion conveyed in these vocal lines. I wish we'd get more of this type on "None of the Above" instead of the noisy and dull "Like Veronica".

I just can consider this Hammill album as being an average one. Two stars.

After the slightly more rocking This, None of the Above returns to the balladry of Hammill's more reflective persona. Just like its companion Everyone You Hold, this ballad album shares similar qualities but also suffers from the same weaknesses.

With Touch and Go Hammill again sets off most convincingly. But the quality is not continued. Naming the Rose submerges into the drowsy sameness that made Hammill's previous ballad albums hard to sit through. How Far I Fell is a lot better again, with inspired melodies and a strong tension that is maintained throughout. Halfway in it contains a piano section with trademark Hammill time signatures and interwoven melodic patterns.

And it continues up and down. Somebody Bad Enough doesn't do much for me but Tango for One and especially the more upbeat Like Veronica keep the album interesting. In A Bottle starts with dissonant processed guitars but doesn't turn into a rock song. Instead it's one of the most experimental and ambient tracks on the album. Quiet, but quite enjoyable again. Astart is an unremarkable album closer.

In the past Hammill's ballads used to have more bite, but if you are open towards a more mellowed out and atmospheric approach, you might enjoy a lot of music on this album. I'd rather recommend this album to David Sylvian fans then to Hammill aficionados.