Still Life by Van Der Graaf Generator

We are not worthy!

Some time ago now, I wrote a piece about Godbluff. Van Der Graaf Generator’s fifth album that was released in 1975, shortly after the band reformed. It was the album I knew from childhood so held a particular resonance for me. Mainly due to lack of funds at the time, I never explored their back catalogue until more recently. After all Godbluff was such a monster of an album it kept me going throughout my youth, providing the visceral fuel of the young in blood, guts and gore.

More recently, with a healthier bank account, I revisited their oeuvre and made up for the lost years. What better band is there to meet the existential dread and lost phantom promises of later life, and the emerging presence of the pale rider, stalking your dreams?

But I have a confession. The follow up to Godbluff has been gathering dust on my cd shelves, forsaken, almost forgotten. Still Life was released in 1976 and is generally regarded as one of their finest and most enduring albums. Although, I have to say, this band never produced a mediocre album. It wasn’t in their nature. All their albums are shot through with a gritty grandeur that makes them unique. Their greatness is ubiquitous, only separated by degree.

So it was with the shame and innocence of a virgin that I have listened to this…