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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
After the great trilogy Sitting Targets-Enter K-Patience,
Hammill came up with Skin. When I bought it when it was released
I felt a bit disappointed about this album. Not because it was
a bad album, it just didn't seem up to the high standards of its
predecessors. Now, nearly 20 years later, my opinion has changed.
In fact I think this album is just as brilliant as the three
before it, but in a different way. Highlights are the beautiful
ballad After the Snow, the poignant All Said and Done and the
unnerving Four Pails. And of course the long piece of this
album, the masterly Now Lover. But Skin and Shell are also
great songs. Recommanded to anyone who doesn't now his work
yet, but take your time, this has to grow on you...
Hammill came up with Skin. When I bought it when it was released
I felt a bit disappointed about this album. Not because it was
a bad album, it just didn't seem up to the high standards of its
predecessors. Now, nearly 20 years later, my opinion has changed.
In fact I think this album is just as brilliant as the three
before it, but in a different way. Highlights are the beautiful
ballad After the Snow, the poignant All Said and Done and the
unnerving Four Pails. And of course the long piece of this
album, the masterly Now Lover. But Skin and Shell are also
great songs. Recommanded to anyone who doesn't now his work
yet, but take your time, this has to grow on you...
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Throughout the 80's Peter Hammill continued to push his work into exciting new territory. 'Skin' (1986), perhaps more than any other album he released at this time, set his agenda for the decade. As John Gill, in his Time Out review of April '86 noted: '...Hammill's music keeps abreast of the years...his new album sees him as eclectic as ever, touching on ambient-ish moods and, on 'Perfect Date', modern dance worthy of one of the Factory keyboard bands.' Commenting on the recording of the album, Hammill stated: 'On a technical side, this was the first recording in which I came to grips with some newer technology - coding, sequencing and the like. The music was nearly all recorded and mixed at Sofa Sound, with many alarums and excursions; some work was done at The Wool Hall, a state-of-the-art facility just down the road. I play most of the instruments myself. The drumming is by Guy Evans, although I did the drum programming; Jaxon also makes a couple of appearances, getting through a variety of sax styles in the course of them. And there's a rarer bird: Hugh Banton has contributed some flying fingerwork.' The album boasts a diversity of styles, from love songs to harder rock, from atmospheric ballads to pure pop - witness the up-tempo 'Painting By Numbers' which was later released in an extended 12" single version. Hammill is in confident voice throughout, going full-throttle on tracks like the opener 'Skin' and the extra CD only track 'You Hit Me Where I Live'. 'After the Show' is a key song of the record, and one that Hammill still often performs live. On the compilation 'The Calm(Before the Storm)' he explained more about its meaning: 'One of many Actor songs which have littered my path. What does happen to those lives that tread the boards? What's the trade-off? There are several onion skin layers of reality here and some of them are obviously self-referential...' John Gill concluded: 'This is most definitely modern stuff, at times inviting comparisons with the diverse likes of Wire, Fripp and Eno, even Section 25 and New Order. It is still distinctly Hammill's own work, and features some typical, and timeless, Hammill ballads such as 'After the Show', and the almost obligatory longer piece, 'Now Lover', featuring a number of 'movements' and some of the most perverse time signatures since 'Pioneers Over C'. Me, I'm plumping for the newer styles; the beautiful, translucent 'Shell', the taut, resonant title track and the rolling, shuffling funk of 'Perfect Date'.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Of course, 'After the Show', 'Shell', 'Perfect Date' and 'Four Pails' are key Hammill songs. The common complaint that this album was too mired in 80's production was perhaps merely an indication that, with digital recording, PH was now able to lend more of an ear to the fabric as well as the general wash of a song. A good album, though it can't seem to make up its mind what kind of album it is.
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