01	When She Comes						08:02
	02	A Place To Survive						10:04
	03	Masks						06:56
	04	Meurglys III (The Songwriter's Guild)						20:51
	05	Wondering						06:34

Member: Prog Owl (Profile) (All Album Reviews by Prog Owl)
Date: 5/19/2002
Format: CD (Album)

Peter Hammill: Vocals, Piano, Guitar
Hugh Banton: Organ, Synth
David Jackson: Saxophones, Devices
Guy Evans: Drums, Percussion

This is a rather interesting VDGG outing that shows their greatest strengths and weaknesses simultaneously. It was also the swan song of the "classic" 4 piece VDGG lineup (Hugh Banton and David Jackson electing to leave for a more normal, stable life, getting caught in riots while on tour can be draining after a while).

The disc gets off to a great start with "When She Comes", a cautionary tale of being caught off-guard in affairs of the heart. Featured prominently of course, is Hammill's clever wordplay (peppered with references to Gothic writers like Poe, Blake and Byrne-Jones) and angry, slashing guitar. Add to all this, Guy Evans' amazing turn on a dime drumming, Banton's appropriately Gothic organ flourishes and mutant saxophone choruses from Jaxon and some surprises like a cool Spanish-Middle Eastern section with Banton and Jaxon exchanging edgy phrases and a sort-of "crime jazz" section (with echoed lawnmower among other things), then Hammill brings it all back to a raging conclusion.

"A Place To Survive" by stark contrast is a less complex, but just as engaging tune with enough sax/organ riffing to make any hardcore VDGG fan quite happy.

"Masks" is where Hammill unleashes some righteous anger at someone who manipulates people and puts on quite a show, while never letting their true selves be known. As always, the unpredictable time and meter changes make this a great ride!

So far, so good!

And on to the lengthier "Meurglys III (The Songwriter's Guild)", This is where things start to unravel some. It starts out beautifully enough, a slow brooding peek into Hammill's psyche, a musing of pain and loss and wanting to find solace in one's creative activities. At the time this was written, Hammill was going through a divorce, and this clearly shows the pain in every word and note. Looking good so far, that is until the last verse has been sung. Then, the band gets in over its head, embarking on a rather ill-conceived reggae jam. It clearly shows that while VDGG were certainly good musicians and had a way with arrangement and texture, full-blown improvisers they were not for long periods of time. It quickly lapses into tedium as Hammil makes the major misstep of trying to play lead guitar (something that has NEVER been his fortй) and inflicts a painfully shrill solo of sorts on the listener. OUCH!!! They would've done better to end the song at the last verse!

However, the disc ends on the hopeful note of "Wondering", in what sounds like a majestic life-after-death type song, very beautiful and stirring and untypical of VDGG, normally known for its doom-laden scenarios.

Overall, a good solid record marred by a couple ill-conceived ventures into overly deep water.

This Owl gives it 3.5 hoots out of a possible 5
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