the strawberry bricks' album of the day

Album of the Day (200):
album cover

Van Der Graaf Generator - World Record (October 1976)
After rehearsals in Headley Grange and a few UK concerts, the band was back at Rockfield Studios to record their third album in less than a year. Hammill even found time to record a solo album, the subject of which was his impending split-up: the cathartic Over was quite a wrenching matter, but World Record is (thankfully) another story. The album attempts to be the most straightforward VDGG would deliver, but ultimately may be their most perplexing. Hammill picks up the electric guitar for most of the record. That said, the integration is tenuous at best: VDGG were never a guitar band and this album wasn't going to change that either. Just listen to "Masks!": Hammill's cack-handedness is more than an odd juxtaposition to the rest of the band's precision. The sultry "When She Comes" features some the band's sexiest arrangements, a big contrast to the following "A Place To Survive". Here Banton's organ roar is positively deafening, with Hammill's anguished delivery perfectly following suit. "Meurglys III" is Hammill's ode to his guitar, and incredibly, VDGG even get down to jamming on record; Banton's reggae chops alongside Hammill's half-baked lead are perfectly insane, but Jackson's saxophone sounds effete. Yet the epiphany of "Wondering" is the perfect ending and most fitting to the band's blistering run over the past two years. VDGG were on the road for the album's release, completing another short UK tour before undertaking their first concerts in North America. They played a half-dozen shows in Canada and made their only US appearance ever, on October 18th, at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The remainder of the year was spent touring Europe. Banton's self-built organ, the "HB1", finally debuted at their November Peel Session, but his notice had already been served: Banton's last gig with VDGG was in Saarbrücken on December 9th.