STILL LIFE

Ok, let me start off by saying that it is very, very rare for me to listen to a Van der Graaf album for the first time and be blown away, they usually take three listenings at least for me to say "hey... this album is pretty damn good"... with this one the very first time I was listening to it I knew I would write a 5 star review about it.

And yes, ladys and gentlemen, it is really one hell of an album, all you could ever ask from VDGG is here and better than ever, music does not get much better than this... specially not the vocals!!! And I mean it, ladys and gentlemen, the vocals here are not only superb as always (it´s Hammill... what else could you expect?) but I think maese Hammill never sung with more emotion before (I do not dare to say "after", there is a lot of his material, specially solo I haven´t had the chance to hear yet). I mean, liste to the part where he sings "I climb through the evening, alive and believing in time we shall all know our goals and so, finally, home" from the opening act Pilgrims without feeling something. I mean. it´s simple imposible, this one line, this one and only line is so... so damn charged with emotions... I can only take my hat off to Hammills genius. Of course the rest of the album is just as good, specially La Rossa, which might be the strongest song of this album, and one of the top... three of their whole career or so... that´s for sure!

What more to add?... mmm, nothing really; damn, I had not written such a short review in a very long time... but there isn´t really anything more I can say... I can maybe with some synonymous to Still Life. marvellous, excellent, masterpiece, incredible, the shit, extraordinary, just to freakin´good. and I could go on and on.