"Sitting Targets" is a great album, like all of Hammill's works in the '80s up to 1986, although it could be considered a transitional album (which, in any case, would not diminish its value) as it sits between that triptych of new sound experiments in the '78-'80 period and the albums with the K-Group. In this album, Hammill's interest in new "wave" sounds has reached a certain completeness, a stylistic confidence that leads to a greater "agility" in the songs, at least compared to the skeletal, disarming, dark structures of "Black Box." Naturally, this is the "Hammillwave" and his approach to the wave of the time is entirely consistent with his artistic creed (and sometimes marked by Jackson's saxophone tone), and here too there are songs that offer little to a casual first listen, never banal in structure, while others summarize Hammill's best expressive explosiveness combined with very bright wave-pop rhythms ("My Experience," "Sign," "Empress's Clothes," the beautiful title track). The "floor" on which they rest is the same as the VDGG, the same as the visceral rock genuineness of Nadir, but reinterpreted in a wave that is sui generis. Then there are pieces closer to the nadirian rock ("Hesitation")… more

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