VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
World Record ESOTERIC
The third Charisma black album gets new stereo/5.1 mixes in two-CD/Blu-ray set.
Originally released towards the end of 1976, World Record would be the final release from the ‘classic’ Hammill/Jackson/Banton/Evans line-up until Present in 2005. The last of a trio of albums produced by the band in an explosively creative 12-month period, it’s often regarded as the weakest of the three – but given the albums before it were Godbluff and Still Life, these things are relative, and World Record has merits of its own. It’s looser and less dense, and contains one of the band’s defining songs. However, it sometimes sounds overly dry and a little tinny, even on the remaster presented here on this multidisc reissue.