What Now?
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As if to consistenly prove his genius, Peter Hammill regularly delivers albums like What Now? (2001)- a collection of heartfelt songs performed with passion. I honestly can’t think of another music artist that is capable of entering a 4th decade as a solo performer, and still sound as vital as this.
The ebb and flow of the opening track, Here Come The Talkies, is a good sampler of this album - changing between a reflective to an insistent, even aggressive delivery. |
Fed To The Wolves is Hammill as awesomely angry as he sounded on classic songs such as Porton Down and Mediaeval, matching them for unbridled fury. Quieter tracks such as Far-Flung; The American Girl and Wendy and the Lost Boy, are all beautifully developed elegiac songs.
What Now? is not a uniformly strong album however, with two songs that meander aimlessly like too much of his quieter 90’s output. Edge of the Road suffers especially because it is book-ended by such dramatic songs as Lunatic in Knots and Fed to the Wolves.
All in all though, this album is recommended, and along with This and Roaring Forties, it is one of his strongest albums of the past 10 or so years.
If you like this album, then try :
This
Roaring Forties
Clutch
X My Heart
Out Of Water
Patience
performed by:
Peter Hammill
Stuart Gordon - violin, viola
Manny Elias - drums
David Jackson - saxophones, flute
track listing:
1. Here Come The Talkies
2. Far Flung (across the sky)
3. The American Girl
4. Wendy & The Lost Boy
5. Lunatic In Knots
6. Edge of the Road
7. Fed to the Wolves
8. Enough