Unknown Soldier

Album Title: Pawn hearts
Artist: Van der Graaf Generator
Nationality: British
Year: 1971
Subgenre: Classic Prog
Player(s): Peter Hammill (Guitars, Pianos and Vocals), Hugh Banton (Keyboards, Bass), Guy Evans (Drums), David Jackson (Sax and flute) --- with guest appearance from Robert Fripp on guitar
Familiarity: Surprisingly the album I knew least from their early work.
Favourite track(s): "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers"
Why? Well it's such a epic and it wouldn't be possible to not like this and still like the rest of the album. The song is truly innovative and its strength lies in each member doing their own musical virtuosos without actually getting too carried away with it like ELP would and these disciplined restraints are a key factor for the song.
Least favourite track(s): None
Why? N/A
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? The album I least know of the band's early work, so was kind of looking forward to listening to it again to see if it's as great as the reviews were saying.
Factoids you'd like to share? I once remember reading that this album was originally meant to be a double.
End impression: A prime example of classic era prog really and the sax of David Jackson is pretty amazing as is the drumming of Guy Evans, but then again so are the rest of the band. Like most of VDGG's work the album has stood the test of time and still sounds very fresh. VDGG I find are a band that should be listened to sparingly anyway.
Comments: I always slightly preferred the previous two albums over this The Least We Can Do is Wave to Each Other and H to He, Who Am The Only One, but on listening to this today it's much better than I remembered and reading various reviews on how highly this album is rated, I can certainly see the brilliance of the album. But at the end of the day with VDGG it's really like apples and oranges as most of their albums are pretty great and solid, something that not every prog band can always muster.

As already mentioned Peter Hammill was the vital ingredient of this band and had a pretty remarkable vocal range along (even if he sounds girly at times)with the band's instantly recognizable sound and soundwise they kind of sat somewhere between King Crimson and Genesis and were as equally as good as those two. But whereas I can easily be in the mood to listen to Gabriel era Genesis and virtually anything by Crimson, I really have to be in the mood for VDGG, but maybe that's just down to how intense they are.

Rating: 4.5

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