Audio CD review:
Peter Hammill - The Love Songs

Peter Hammill - The Love Songs

Band: Peter Hammill Title: The Love Songs Rating: Release Date: 2007-09-18 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Just Good Friends 2: My Favourite 3: Been Alone So Long - Peter Hammill, Smith, C.J.J. 4: Ophelia 5: Again 6: If I Could 7: Vision 8: Don't Tell Me 9: The Birds 10: (This Side Of) The Looking Glass

Ten of Peter Hammill's most intimate love songs revisited, remixed and remastered. 'The Love Songs' is a 1984 collection of the best examples - revisited and remixed and remastered in 2007 - from a number of earlier albums. Peter Hammill's career-long quest for the perfect exposition of the love song has resulted in some of his finest compositions. Hammill has always had, as the British rock magazine, Q, noted, 'a penchant for a considered romantic ballad', and his emotion-packed delivery and evocative, heartfelt lyrics perfectly suit the form. Centrepiece of the album is the opening 'Just Good Friends', a dramatic orchestral reworking of the original from the '83 'Patience' album. The album is packed with many other Hammill classics: 'The Birds' and 'Vision' from '71's 'Fool's Mate'; a haunting 'Don't Tell Me' from '82's 'Enter K' and a re-voicing of 'The Looking Glass' from the original Hammill heartbreak album, '77's 'Over'. Perhaps these songs succeed so well because Hammill is not content to deal in the usual pop-song platitudes and banalities. He explores the theme of love from both sides of the tracks - while songs like 'Again', originally from '74's 'In Camera', and 'If I Could' from '78's 'The Future Now', are intimate portrayals of loss and relationships reaching their end, 'My Favourite', from '79's 'PH7' and 'Vision', are celebrations of contentment and passion. 'The Love Songs' is an 'easy listening' Peter Hammill record, notable for its warmth and accessibility. You can see a complete list of all Peter Hammill discography, or go back to the Peter Hammill tabs