Gentle Giant
"You will have to tell me all"
REVIEWS
- OCTOPUS Federico's review / Oleg's review
INTRODUCTION written by Richard Vasiliy
Among the greatest progressive-rock bands Gentle Giant has
their own separate place. Not only by their rather short history, not only
by their very low popularity in 70s (only recently music-fans became to understand
how influentive and underrated Gentle Giant was), but by their very specific
sound with a lot of atonal and dissonant music, very complicated melodies,
arrangements and structures (I’m sure, that’s why the band wasn’t well-known
and was even the less popular than VDGG or King Crimson, those also never
was very popular and haven’t released hits), with using of rare (for rock
music) instruments (old English and Celtic winds, for example) and multi-voiced
vocal-capellas (oh, the band members were so skilled in it!). And, of course,
they were very specific in creating the very short (for progressive rock)
tracks (unlike, for example, Yes, Genesis or King Crimson Gentle Giant very
rarely released the tracks longer than 6 minutes, and no more than 10 minutes
– their longest studio track was (my personal the most favorite one by the
band) NOTHING AT ALL 9:41), but the sound of the band were so “tight” so they
could put in 4-5 minute-long song the same amount of melody, thoughts and
sense as Yes or Genesis usually contained in 15-20 minute-long compositions!
The only thing nobody can understand is why Gentle Giant after so complex
art-rock music suddenly has began to play some kind of generic glamour-rock
with elements of punk and pop in the second half of 70s (and, by the way,
the band has gone even more unpopular – no pop-music fans, no “progheads”
didn’t buy their “pop-period” vinyls) , and it’s impossible to compare their
1976 and 1977 albums – it seems like these records were released by absolutely
another bands.
So now we have by GG’s creation a great range of different kinds of music:
from (so nice!) Tudorian-kind ballads (ON REFLECTION, STRANGE WAYS) to aggressive
funky numbers (as WAY OF LIFE or GIANT FOR A DAY), from “luxury” jazzy-influented
pseudo-swings (like ISN’T IT QUIET AND COLD) to dark and wild early-medieval-like
“Barbarian” tracks (GIANT or THE HOUSE, THE STREET, THE ROOM). And the fact
that the band creates their compositions with several lead-vocalists (usually
they were Kenny Minnear with his very nice and high-note vocal and Derek Shulman
with his sharp and powerful voice) make Gentle Giant’s discography even more
multicoloured. So let’s start to talk about the albums of Gentle Giant...
GENTLE GIANT, 1970
Overall Rating: 9*
Best Song: NOTHING AT ALL
Worst Song: THE QUEEN
Written by Richard Vasiliy
It was the one of the best debuts in rock-music ever (as in
cases of the 1st albums of King Crimson and Brian Eno, this one is my personal
favorite album of the actual band). GENTLE GIANT-album contains so many musical-colours,
impressions, different styles and melodies. This record hardly could be called
“conceptual”, but anyway the album is very completed, excellent-arranged and
absolutely has no weak moments; you will listen this album “by one breathing”
from beginning to end, I promise you! The actual album starts with several
quiet notes of organ, and then you already can listen the loud and powerful
bass-guitar aggressive-lines, and some seconds after drums, Derek Shulman’s
vocal and guitar-riffs enter – the 1st track of the album named GIANT begins.
The song is characterized by dark, forcing and (some kind of) catastrophe
atmosphere, and the basic associations it provokes in my mind are Barbarians’
invasion to the late Roman Empire, or maybe “the last day of Pompeii”, or
some kind of another “wild horror”. Especially I like the moment, which you
can hear twice at this song (at the middle of second half of the track and
at the very end), when the rhythm is fading away, and the whole darkness and
desperation of the composition is achieving it’s apogee by symphonic-orchestra-kind
unison of organ, winds and guitar; all of this is really impressive, one of
my favorite songs by the band.
The 2nd song is the antipode of the 1st one. STRANGE WAYS is very Gentle ballad
by our Giant :o) It has very nice and memorable melody (rare case for GG)
and based on some simple violin-riffs. But the most beautiful element of the
song is the Minnear’s vocal, it’s pretty sensuous and “sensitive” to the main
melody. And also it’s necessary to take attention to the instrumental mid-section,
which is not so quiet and balladering as the rest of the track, listen to
this guitar lines and winds. The next song ALUCARD turns us to the heavy and
dark atmosphere of the opening track, only with a little bit more guitar/saxophone
riffs and without those “ancient” associations; I even may say that the music
of ALUCARD is “timeless” with only some gothic elements. Hey (I’ve almost
drowned in philosophy!), the song is great! It’s great in all the parameters:
solid power, unusual structure and arrangement, the lyrics are very close
to music, very impressive melody and vocal (with excellent “echo-effect”!),
complicated rhythms and a lot of so interesting melodies in one local 6-minute
composition! The real classic of progressive. And once again: the dark track
is changing by gentle and nice one. ISN’T IT QUIET AND COLD? impress absolutely
another associations to compare with previous composition. My “picture” is:
old London (ages of Edward the 7th or George the 5th), the lunch-time in the
business centre, cool spring weather after little fresh rain... It’s good
to have some tea with a little piece of cake in the working time-out. The
song is nice and have some influences of early swinging jazz of 10s-20s (or
maybe English Cabaret music).
(As I already mentioned in my GG’s Introduction) the 5th track of the album
NOTHING AT ALL is my favorite composition by the band ever. And it’s sad to
me that I’m lonely in love with this song, because some other people who also
know Gentle Giant (from SU too) don’t like it; they say that there is atrocious
mid-section with drum-solo – yes, there’s the drum solo, so what? This solo
is awesome! Even if it’s characterized by “synthesizered-effect”. This drum-solo
with “backwards”-sounding wonderful piano-melody impress me so great, and
by the way the actual drum-solo is short (near a minute)… Oh, why is it necessary
to speak only about this solo?! NOTHING AT ALL is great as a whole thing!
It starts with very nice acoustic-guitar passages and beautiful-vocal melody
(Minnear again, who is more preferable to me than Derek Shulman – and look
at the strange thing: Kerry Minnear always said that he is not able to sing
at all, but, hey, don’t listen to “the modest Kerry”, because his vocal is
magical!). Especially I like the notes: “...little girl who had everything
finds she's nothing at all...” with their “double-vocal” effect. And when
in the middle of the track Derek sings his part the music turns heavier and
wilder (as usual when Derek sings); from beginning to very end this composition
is constantly changing it’s colours and images: after “Derek’s part” just
this already mentioned drum-solo/ piano-melody sounds, and than again you
can listen “Kerry’s part”. To my opinion, the song is really great.The next
song WHY NOT? is another heavy-riff-oriented number with aggressive and sharp
Derek’s vocal. But the best moment of the track is (to my opinion) those short
organ-passages after each verse, mmm, they are breathtaking! And, yes, the
song is constructed around solid bluesy guitar-riffs (Gary Green is really
very universal guitarist – he could with equal degree of quality and success
to play bluesy-guitar, classical guitar, jazz-guitar, etc.) and the main vocal-melody.
The closer track of the album is funny and semi-parodic; it’s named THE QUEEN
and it is the Gentle Giant’s cover of English Hymn. In the very beginning
it really sounds as Anthem, pompously and seriously, but then it suddenly
transforms into joyful jazzy Dixieland-kind mess where only the melody can
make us remember that this is GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. And the last important thing:
look at the album-cover, isn’t it wonderful? The cover is really excellent
with this smiling sweet giant. So, if you don’t know Gentle Giant (or know
the band not much) and would like to listen some stuff of it, I advice you
to start with this album, because it’s not so complicated as mid-seventies
albums and full of very nice and impressive material.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
ACQUIRING THE TASTE, 1971
Overall Rating: 8*
Best Song: WRECK
Worst Song: PLAIN TRUTH
Written by Richard Vasiliy
Gentle Giant continues to create really outstanding records
here – ACQUIRING THE TASTE is of the same level of quality as the band’s debut
album (I gave the one-point smaller rating here only my own objective opinion
– I simply like the 1st album by the band more than other records by Gentle
Giant). The particular thing that I especially would like to note in ACQUIRING
THE TASTE is it’s sound close to Canterbury Bands (you know a lot of them,
Steve Hillage. Hatfield And The North, National Health, Greenslade, for example),
it means that here you will hear a lot of British jazzy-art-rock influences
(strangely, but still I never read in several reviews I’ve seen such comparisons),
and such influences has a place in some of this album tracks – PANTAGRUEL’S
NATIVITY, EDGE OF TWILIGHT, BLACK CAT. In opposite there are also some tracks
inspired not by jazz-rock, but by European medieval music – THE HOUSE, THE
STREET, THE ROOM, ACQUIRING THE TASTE, THE MOON IS DOWN and WRECK (and in
PANTAGRUEL’S NATIVITY too!). You may say these two type of styles (jazz and
music of middle ages) cannot be joint by each other, but they are! And thee
are not really out-of-place tracks on the album.
The album begins with slow dark keyboard-melody of PANTAGRUEL’S NATIVITY.
The song is very nice and really strange at the same time: it’s inspired by
mixing of a lot of different stylistics – melotronic-oriented sound, Hammill-esque
melodies, jazzy vocal and some chords, some flute-passages of medieval British
folk, very solid, impressive and dark guitar-parts and great voice-works (as
in single-singing as in choir-parts) by Derek and Shulman brothers. And, yes,
PANTAGRUEL’S NATIVITY is a psychedelic composition, it’s a real progressive-psychedelic
composition! Though the next track EDGE OF TWILIGHT is also psychedelic one.
And in some sense it’s created in similar style as the previous track: dark
avant garde melody (though without especial medieval influences), jazzy chords,
slow rhythm and Steve-Hillage-esque guitar work, but the really magic moment
of the composition is that acoustic guitar lines in the middle of the song
(which also reminds me of late 70s Steve Hillage, or I wanted to say late
70s Steve Hillage reminds me these acoustic guitar lines of EDGE OF TWILIGHT).
Absolutely another mood you get by is the next song THE HOUSE THE STREET THE
ROOM. From the 1st Gothic notes you’re drowning deep in the Middle Ages with
their narrow streets, dark walls and torture rooms – at least the music creates
such associations (Black Sabbath and modern doom-bands could really envy to
Gentle Giant for this composition!). I even may call this song as pre-doom-metal
example in some sense, though the verses of the track are the practically
pure art-rock with using of acoustic guitar and harpsichord and inspired by
old European musical intonations. It also contains some jamming noises, though
listening closer you easily will note normal and solid melodies there. Also
I may say that this track is rather close to ALUCARD from the 1st album. The
next track is the short instrumental named as the album ACQUIRING THE TASTE.
It has very nice fairy melody and gentle arrangement by only keyboards sounded
as if guitar and winds, and it is really inspired by old British music.
Oh, the 2nd side of the LP starts with my favorite track here named WRECK.
This composition is obviously influenced (again!) by the music of medieval
Britain, it’s really like to the warlike songs of knights, oh, and it rocks!
Powerful mid-tempo hard-rocking guitar-sound plus excellent choirs of vocalists
(listen to this awesome “hey-eyyyy-ey”-singing!) has given damn great result!
And listen to this beautiful moment after the second verse when the sound
becomes gentler (with violins and harpsichords and Minnear’s vocal) and then
transforms into so breathtaking guitar-solo by Gary Green (this album was
the real “star-work” by Mr. Green!) with wonderful Renaissance-like atmosphere
(which will also be repeated at the end of the track). Also it’s worthy to
note the great work by “winds-man” Phil Shulman. The next track THE MOON IS
DOWN could be also called as almost such a great being not so similar to the
main melody of WRECK and a little bit less “energetic” than the-same-old WRECK.
Anyway the song is good, its Gothic mood is good, its Minnear’s vocal is good,
its instrumental work is good, etc is good... :o) It also has the sudden jazzy-brass-mid-section,
which is also pretty listenable in the actual composition. And in the 7th
track BLACK CAT you can hear the main riff and melody quite similar to WRECK
how funny it could be sounded. Ha! Maybe Gentle Giant’s participants were
diseased by some strange idea of such riff that time? :o) Though the atmospere
of the song is really different with the two previous tracks – it’s jazzy
and closer to “minimalistic sound”.
And the closer track PLAIN TRUTH? It’s characterized by very interesting ideas
in guitar and bass-guitar skills, rather complex structures, rhythms and rhythm-changes,
but it has lack in the main thing – in music (I think there’re not really
interesting melodic “pictures”, solid vocals or instrumental pieces, and also
something moody or impressive, which could catch you listening to this song).
I also think PLAIN TRUTH is a little bit out-of-place of the general line
of the whole album, I especially mean those traditional bluesy guitar-solos
– this solos are good as they are, but they would be good for Rolling Stones
or Eric Clapton, for example, though not for Gentle Giant’s European art-rock
sound. Anyway the song is not bad, it’s even good and would be listenable
for rather wide range of public.
In concluding I want to say that the actual album is a little bit more complicated
to get into than the debut album, but it’s of the same class, it’s classic
of progressive rock, every progressive-rock listener has to have ACQUIRING
THQ TASTE in his collection.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
THREE FRIENDS ,1972
Overall rating 6,5.
Best song PEEL THE PAINT.
Worst Song MISTER CLASS AND QUALITY.
Written by Vasily Zagorochayev
Here the band went to create something really conceptual, some
kind of story about three absolutely different man those were the friends-classmates
a long time ago. Not very thoughtful or “crafty” conception, but...about life.
I also admitted that the album contains not very much really nice melodies
or something unusual or very impressive. THREE FRIENDS is closer to mainstream-rock
than previous two and the later (till 1977) albums by the band.
The album starts with hard-rocking PROLOGUE which is basically constructed
on sharp keyboards riffs and loud bass-line. The song is rather good: it rocks
well and creates some definite mood, though has neither solid melody nor interesting
vocals those are too quiet and unmemorable (I even didn’t remember, is there
some vocal or not, after several times I listened THREE FRIENDS). But, as
I already said, the overall impression of the song is good.
The story begins in the 2nd track SCHOOLDAYS telling about the “pink” years
of childhood of these Three Friends, when no social differences could break
their treats. The song is nicest here, it’s quiet (but not a ballad) and moody,
has wonderful melodies and good capella-vocal (the thing Gentle Giant always
successfully used); the temp-changes and complicated structure also makes
the song interesting for clever progressive-rockers. And, yes, those short
piano parts, they are very beautiful (it reminds me something of Tchaikovsky
and Brahms), but vocal parts are from Beethoven’s territories. And don’t forget
about that funny jazzy piece closer to the end of the composition. All of
these compounds make SCHOOLDAYS very unusual and interesting. Then the guitar-riffing-hard-rocking
attempt WORKING ALL DAY follows. I think the fans of Black Sabbath and Uriah
Heep would really appreciate it. It’s based on solid bass and guitar riffs,
mid-tempo heavy drums and powerful vocal, just like a standard “heavy-rock”
example (though with rather long but not so impressive keyboard-solo). And,
yes, this song is about the professional choice (or the way, if you want)
of one of those classmates, who was (see the name of the song) the usual worker,
who worked, worked and worked day-by-day, came home, had his sleepy-time and
then worked day-by-day again. Is he glad by his living?..
Though I think he’s a pretty boring man... Hey, forget my thoughts now! :o)
Then we have a song called PEEL THE PAINT, which is about another classmate,
who’s not a worker but a rather strange person, who’s rather usual artist
who thinks he’s very extraordinary and outstanding person (all of such men
think so). Though the song is really as strange as extraordinary; in the beginning
it almost has no some kind of construction (or skeleton, or frame, if you
want), but it has a really wonderful parts of violin, mmm! In the middle the
song suddenly is going heavier with electric guitars and such stuff (and after
the Phill’s singing in the 1st half, we
have the sharper voice of Derek, so it’s no surprising), so this part of the
PEEL THE PAINT is
quite similar to WORKING ALL DAY by its common sound. And before the end it
grows into some chaotic (but really skilful) instrumental jam; I even think
this part of the song was recorded live and premixed later. And at the very
end you can listen the powerful thundering coda.
The fifth track MISTER CLASS AND QUALITY is about the most normal man (I said
no “the best”) among the three classmates. He is successfully realized in
his “merchant” life, and he seems to me kinda laughing at his less successful
friends. So, I don’t think he’s a pleasant man… The song is not so impressive
to me. It has “moderate-boogie” rhythm and absolutely
uninteresting melody (I think such people as “Mr. Class” also has no some
kinds of interesting melodies in their characters) without any hooks. But
the ending is great! I mean the last track THREE FRIENDS by the name of the
actual album, as you can see (without pause beginning after MR CLASS AND QUALITY),
with its pseudo-church organ sounds and choral voices plus another (slower)
kind of rhythm it really reminds me some stuff from the first GG’s album.
I think it’s the most suitable epilogue to this album about those who “went
from class to class”, “sweet in sadness” and “full of gladness”. So, all of
this stuff describes in simple way some antagonisms between classes, even
if their representatives were big friends in the past.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
OCTOPUS, 1972
Overall Rating: 9,5*
Best Song: I can't really choose
Worst Song: none, of course
Epitomized prog-rock. If you are one of those who think ars gratia artis
is self-indulgence, please do not waste your precious time reading this!
Written by Federico Marcon
«[...] In its tendency toward virtuosity (be it instrumental, metrical, or technogical), its interest in compositional problems for their own sake, and its ecleticism - its delight in mixing unlikely stylistic sources - progressive rock showed a predilection toward art for art's sake that is absent in most other types of contemporay popular music. This served as a constant source of irritation for many rock critics [...]»
EDWARD MACAN
Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture
Oxford University Press
I haven't still find this book here in Italy, but some people
who read it, tell me it's really worth buying, so if you can find it, give
it a chance. And that quotation is really appropriate since this review is
about Gentle Giant, one of my favourite prog-bands ever; they are all expert
and wise arrangers, they give a lot of importance to the compositions and
they are good players (this should go without saying: they are a prog band
of course, but they are still unique since Kerry Minnear was probably the
only prog-rock keyboard player of the era who allowed his synthesizers to
sound like themselves and not mimic orchestras; Gary Green's guitars are alternately
loud and brittle or soft and lyrical, and always surprising). The band style
was quite unique and astonishing, even for the epoch, with their unmatched
mix of medieval harmonies and electric rock; the interlacement of the several
instruments is always full of fancy and all of the musicianship displays an
elegance seldom heard even in progressive circles.
The main problem of this band? Well, for me it was the accessibility; GG is
not the most accessible band and in order to appreciate them you should have
a little, but solid, knowledge of prog. Even if I don't usually give a damn
about accessibility, I admit that GG is a real hard nut to put your teeth
onto: a lot of time and key changes, involved arrangements, precious quotations
from other genres, drawing mainly from jazz, intricate rhythmic patterns,
exquisite "musical-arabesque"... Just take this album as example; "The Boys
In The Band" seems to be composed in order to give the listener a lot of frustration:
each time you seem to understand the rhythm and the main melody, the time
signature change suddenly, making the whole thing a bit messy in the first
listen. "Knots" could seem nothing but a stupid joke, an "impossible" interlacement
of dissonant and jarring choruses; the middle instrumental of "Raconteur Troubadour",
has a melodic exquisiteness that was rare even for that fruitful period. Well,
stop a moment: all these features are typical of a prog band, but this band
pulled the boundaries of the genre to their extreme limits, but of course
you won't believe me until you listen to this album. For me it represents
the peak of all the features of this band, thanks also to the new drummer
and percussionist, the steady and precise (but what prog-drummer isn't so?)
John Wethers; here you'll find not only astonishing arrangements, but also
"wisely-shifted" good melodies, a bizarre fusion of several and different
instruments. This album is unique and represents the most idiosyncratic and
innovative side of the band.
Do you want to take a look at the songs? Ok, you'll be satisfied. The opening
"The Advent Of Panurge", one of the best tracks here, begins with a evanescent
vocal introduction that preludes to a powerful sonic explosion controlled
by the amazing cohesion of piano, organ, guitar and drums. As I've already
said, the instrumental break in the middle of "Raconteur Troubadour" has a
melodic line that has nothing less than some classical music; the song, written
trying to recreate some of the spirit of the medieval English troubadours,
has a great atmospheric impact, due to the artful arrangement, made more precious
by some virtuosity in the playing that doesn't kill the compactness of the
song. The dissonances of "Dog's Life" create an interesting "sonic-jungle",
in which bring the listener, made curious by all the little and tasteful sonic
peculiarities. The nostalgic "Think Of Me With Kindness" has all the numbers
to become one of my favourite love songs, with its crystalline pureness, the
delicacy of the brasses and the immaculate playing, that is underlined by
the simplicity of this song. "Knots" is, as explained in the liner notes,
a musical jigsaw, with all the little pieces of music melting all together:
be sure to check out the impressive vocal intro. Are they really human beings?
Another remarkable song is "The Boys In The Band", which features a cool and
explosive beginning, and weird tempo changes.
Do you want to hear me saying: "This is an essential album that should belongs
to all record collections"? No, you've already understood it.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
OCTOPUS, 1972
Overall Rating: 8.5*
Best Song: Knots
Worst Song: River
Their most famous album,but a little bit overrated.Why?Read the review!
Written by Oleg Sobolev
So,that’s it. Octopus-the most famous,”the best”,”the best
for rookies in the complex prog”....Well,not everything is true,but,certanly,Octopus
deserves to be if not the best,so the second best album Gentle Giant ever
did.In the days of Octopus release most of music was written by brothers
Ray and Phil Shulman-Derek Shulman and Kerry Minnear added their thoughts
into songs not very often.The whole band did the complex jazz-prog-based improvs.
And this was the formula of their success.
The album contains 8 songs-usual for Gentle Giant,but the album is damn short-maybe
the shortest Giants album ever(I haven’t got enpugh time to count).They are
much shorter than almost everything on the previous three albums.And more
complex too-just check out such songs as “Knots”(the description of it-“the
musical jigsaw”-can says all without the hearing of the song itself),”The
Boys In The Band” or “River”.Derek Shulman finally got to play some instruments-now,he
is not only sings but also plays alto saxophone(great influence from the big
brother Phil,I think)!Good guy. Also,the band required the new drummer-threw
Malcom Mortimore away and picked up more proffesional(and agressive sometimes
too)drummer John Weathers(though his name was printed like “Wethers” in the
booklet of Octopus-what that guys were thinking about,eh?
The opener-“The Advent Of Panurge”-seems to be the everyone’s favourite on
here.Though,the song isn’t my favourite.Sure,have nice Melody,good lyrics(based
on Francois Rabelais “Pantagruel” book-just like “Pantagruel’s Nativity” from
Acquiring The Taste),interesting chourses(there are even two of them-one
sung by Kerry and one sung by Derek).The mid-section is rather boring,though.
“Raconteur,Troubadour” is the medievil ballad,sung by Derek’s hoarse voice,which
is perfectly fits into the image he plays in the song-as you might guess from
the title-he is troubadour...Or minstrel...Anyway,he is waht he is,now about
the song itself-cute little melosdy,interesting playing from all memebers
of the band and catchy chourses when Derek even trying to do falsseto.
“A Cry For Everyone” starts with cute piano playing but then turns into naive
pseudo-hard song,but melody is good anyway.The lyrics are terrible,though.I
haven’t read any Albert Camus books(the lyrics are based on his philoshopy)
but these guys (I’m sure) translated his books in the poery just terrible.The
only paradise not to hear strange Derek’s singing and dumb lyrics is middle
section,Just standart Gentle Giant middle section.The previous sentence means
that the middle section is fucking good.
“Knots”.This title means a lot to me.This is one of my favourite songs ever-I
won’t be able to describe it-“the musical jigsaw” must be heard by everyone.
The second side opens with a short jazzy improvisation called “The Boys In
The Band”.OK,maybe not so short-it is 4 and a half minutes,did you know it?And
it rules,rules,rules,rules,rules and rules again and again and again and agaianagainagainagain...Oh,well,I
need to stop here.But this improv rules,just fucking rules-such cute keyboard
solos!And what a drumming,man,what a drumming!
“Dog’s Life” sung by Phil Shulman.Surprisingly,his song is even close to Kerry
Minnear than to his brother-Derek Shulman.The song itself is acoustic ballad
with great playing from Gary Green,where he sudenllly understand that: a)he
can play melodies good;b)he is cool bluesman that can play ONE SINGLE NOTE
that certanly rules more than everything on here;c)he can follow melody and
d)he can ever agree to be overshadowed by tons and tons of violin and keyboard
sound.
And the song?Well,it rules even more than Gary Green.
“Think Of Me With Kindness” is a weird Kerry ballad when he just reign the
whole process-as I know,both Phil and Derek Shulman had not participate on
here at all.So,let it be-the song is great anyway.
And,finally,the great problem that is the main reason why I can’t rate the
album as the best Gentle Giant album ever- it is last song,”River”.All over
it six minutes it just sucks.Jamming and shit music,jamming and shit music-it
is the worst Gentle Giant song I have heard so far.Even some shit of Interview
is great after hearing THIS.And George Starostin says he likes this song.What
a crazy guy.
Anyway,the album is great,just great-you need to buy it NOW!
(All marching right to their music shops with the saying that I am a big fuck)
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
THE POWER AND THE GLORY, 1974
Overall Rating: 9.5*
Best Song: Proclamation
Worst Song: Aspirations
Now this is weird - Gentle Giant wanted to be a hard-rock band and it gave
us their best album.Weird.
Written by Oleg Sobolev
After great sucess of various hard-rock,prog-hard,heavy metal(last
this lsit for ever-I’m not going to continue)bands Gentle Giant guys tried
to modernise their sound by some heavy sound(and also comercialise the sound
a little)and got this album.Though there were some tryings to do heavy stuff
some time ago(‘A cry For Evryone”,”Three Friends”,”An Immates Lullaby”-remember
these songs?),but that was rather naive tryings.Now,on The Power And The
Glory Gentle Giant comes close to best 70’s Deep Purple,Uriah Heep and(...please,relax,turn
off your mind and try to do the deepest breath pssible now)Black Sabbath.Not
always,though,but in such songs as “Proclomation”,”Cogs In Cogs”,”So Sincere”
and “Valedictory” the heavines comes closer and closer.But if you liked classic
Gentle Giant and don’t like hard rock-don’t worry,the album still for the
fans-Genle Giant got their classic and unique sound on this baby,that’s for
sure.And if you like guys’ lyrics-don’t miss this one too-this is the best
lyrics(and the best concept-about corruption and all kinds of things like
corruption in politics)on Gentle Giant album I’ve ever heard(or read-I still
don’t have Missing Piece,he-he).
The Power And The Glory opens with maybe the best Gentle Giant song
ever did-“Proclomation”.Funky synth lyrics,unforgetable melody,catchy vocal
parts,great hard proggy middle part with immortal “Hail to power and to glory’s
way” lines...Oh man,I can continue forever-the song really desrves to be the
best-you NEED to listen this one anyway-like you Gentle Giant or not.
“So Sincere” is the first re-write of “Knots” that started the disease of
“Knots” re-writes that will lasts for a long-long time.Now there are Kerry
lead vocal instead of gorgeous vocal harmonies,rather strange instrumentaliation
instead of these short instrumental playing,amazing keyboards instead of amazing
xylophone and,finally,rather monotonious hard chours instead of cactchy “He
is tried to get her afraid by not being afraid” lines-some changes from “Knots”,but
I LOVE,LOVE this song-it even can challange “Proclomation”,but it’s too short-I
want more of this experimnetal “Knots” re-writes!By the way,is All-Music Guide
said this song is “their most accessible track” or what?
“Aspirations” is a strange,but catchy song with lovely melody that has absolutely
not heaviness or something related.Certanly weak spot on the album,but it
never gets on nerves or whatever-relaxing thing,I must admit now.
“Playing The Game” is strange pop song that divided into two parts by strange
medievil middle section-I like that song.Good closing for the first side also.
The second side opens with Gentle Giant prog-metal anthem and the favourite
fan-favourite ever-“Cogs In Cogs”. Tighten and fast playing with great keyboards
lines and gorgeous Derek’s singing-this is great song-strange to see that
everyone,except fans,of course,can’t even get or understand this song-everyone
seems to hate it do death. Another fashion started by George Starostin review,I
wonder?
“No God’s A Man” has beautiful instrumental parts,but sometime those strange
verses gets on my nerves.But that “No god’s a maaaaaaan,no god’s a maaaaan”
lines are amazing.Such as amazing as,for example,the breaking electric violin
“riffage” on the next song-“Face”,which is one of my favourite on the album.And
is the lyrics of that song about nazism or what?
Finally,the last track on the album is ‘Valedictory”-hard complex prog reprise
of “Proclomation” with the dissorted vocals I love.The mid-section is cool
too.After this song,the bonus on CD comes-the single called “Power And The
Glory”.Hard to believe THIS was released as a single,but we can’t change the
history.Surprisingly,the song has nothing with “Proclomation”-instead of “Hail”
we have good and catchy chours sung by good old pal Derek Shulman.
So,now this is good for EVRYONE-if you wanna to get some good complex and
accessible prog-get this one!
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FREE HAND, 1975
Overall Rating: 8*
Best Song: On Reflection
Worst Song: Mobile
They don’t wanna be hard-rock band anymore-they want to be AOR band!
Written by Oleg Sobolev
Say,do you love such bands as Kansas,Styx or Asia?This kind
of typical AOR music with happy dancy pop-songs and tragic songs with pseudo-phylosophical
or hearty shitty-love lyrics?So,this album is perfectly for you-Gentle Giant
wanted to become AOR band in 1975!Hopefully,they haven’t produced album on
such low quality as Kansas,Styx or Asia-they certanly didn’t want to lose
their fans.
Automaticly,with the choosing of AOR direction they continuing to comercialise
their music.This s not so heavy comercial as on The Power And The Glory-much
more soft and funny.Even the lyrics are in such mood-soft and
The album is strongly dividided into two sub-categories-one is little complex
pop spirit-driving songs that often are TOO complex to be successful.The second
category(or group,as you wish)is quite standart Gentle Giant songs,not as
complex as on Octopus or even Interview,but certanly good.As
far as I know,fans love the album just for the second category-they are TOO
tasteful to listen suh pop melodies as,for example,”Time To Kill”.
Anyway,album opens on quite typical Gentle Giant song-‘Just The Same’,with
the lyrics,the meaning of which will appear on the Civilian-the concept
album,by the way-it will all built on “Just The Same” meaning.About the song
itself now.So,what can I say on here?Solid Derek Shulman vocal,funny mid-section
that was rip-offed from “River” in some parts and “Playing The Game’ in others
and certanly almost poppy verses with the same repeating hook that isn’t memorable
at all.
“On Reflection” is some kind of poppy re-writing of “Knots”-vocal harmonies
are much longer,there’s no idea to do complex musical jigsaw-only good melody
that can easily fit on every radio station,if the song wouldn’t be instrumental
on 50 %.Anyway,the instrumental part is the real gem on here-you NEED to listen
this one. Undoubtly, it is the best song on the album and even fans love it-mail
list of Gentle Giant fans even called the same name as this track.
“Free Hand” is a mini-epic.Sometimes hard(reminds me of The Power And The
Glory sometimes),sometimes pop-pleasent,sometimes jazzy,sometimes mind-blowing,it
is certanly one of the most complicated song they have ever did.But,as it’s
usual with Gentle Giant after the release of Octopus,the song seems
to be the good,professional and tasteful re-write of many-many-many songs
that fans always love to death.
“Time To Kill” is certanly pop,but it is Gentle Giant who goes pop and you
need to listen it?Someone said that The Beach Boys or Beatles did the most
complex pop songs that was successful/Well,this is the most successful song
on record and complex too.Sometimes TOO complex.
“His Last Voyage” is beautiful almost-medievil(they wanted to return to their
roots or what?)song,sung by Kerry Minnear.His beautiful voice,as always,PERFECTLY
fits in a ballad,but that’s not all-the whole song is almost fully dominated
by him.Very good song.
“Talybont” is small 2:45 instrumental that has the only one reason to be on
record-Gentle Giant wanted to show how to fill that little song with various
musical themes and show the talents of each member of the band.So,they did
it. They REALLY did it and did not forget about the listener like some bands(let’s
not show it,but it is certanly Yes). The result is the best Gentle Giant instrumental
ever,beats such fan’s idol as “The Boys In The Band”.
Finally,”Mobile” is another trying to get pop song as complex as it can be.Rather
foolish trying,I must say-the song isn’t listenable in all means.Count such
factors as TERRIBLE vocals,ugly melody and non-resonant jamming-the result
is one of the worst Giants song EVER.But,dismiss,theis weak spot,the whole
entire album is VERY strong enough and really deserve to be in your own collection-march
to your shop with “Raconteour,Troubadour” and return to home with...ehh,maybe
“His Last Voyage”?Anyway,there’s no songs taht good to march to,just like
one every single Gentle Giant album(even Interview has some-“Give It
Back” is a perfect example.Imagine Bob Marley marching and sing along to Derek’s
voice and you’ll get it),and that’s good for me-haven’t I told you that sometimes
Giants become too fond of marching music and forget how to write good songs?Well,the
next album is the perfect example of this neverdying theory.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
INTERVIEW, 1976
Overall Rating: 5*
Best Song: Give It Back
Worst Song: Interview
Seems that this guys couldn't even write A SINGLE GOOD MELODY!
Written by Oleg Sobolev
Now,this is weird.After classic Gentle Giant production on
The Power And The Glory and Free Hand with some kind of adaptation
to radio format,Shulman brothers,Minnear,Green and Weathers gave to the fans
ABSOLUTELY uncomercial record-maybe the most complicated and the most weirdest
in the all(I repeat slowly:I N T H E A L L) Gentle Giant entire catalog.The
music became twisted,experimental,strange jamming and nothing more.All of
the Giants(except maybe Derek)just wanted to became ultra-complex Yes and
to show their possibilites as Hell.They haven’t did the first,but they did
the last.Sure,guys KNEW how to play their instruments,but if you want to PLAY,so
please,go and play some fusion or free jazz-prog must have a little bit of
melodies at least,but guys forgot about it and the result is terrible-except
of cool pseudo-raggae melody of “Give It Back”,there is nothing to hear-melodies
just suck..By the way, something about jazz now,OK?EVRY SINGLE reviewer in
the web said that Interview(oh In’terview,as Gary Green said
is a right title)is jazzy.But I can’t hear jazz at all.AT ALL.There’s no jazz,beleive
me.
The album also features the worst Gentle Giant lyrics EVER-they even became
MORE pseudo-phylosophycal and sometimes have strange confusions that I am
really don’t want to tell to you about(OK,I will tell,oh,I will write even
the whole lyrics to the strangest song on here-“Give It Back”.So...
“Isn’t it strange,oh it’s funny,
working for years have no money,
sudenlly luck can smile to you
and your life seems worth while to you.
Chours:
Just how much can you spend
give it back in the end,
and the time of your season
was no use,had no reason.
And you move you go away
And you can’t come home not to-day.
Spreading it out over the bad years,
Not for those man,they can’t hear.
Chours.
Haven’t had much in a long time,
Hoping that change is going to be mine.
Don’t want to go,I want to stay here,
Spreading it out over the bad years.
Chours.”
Now can someone tell me the meaning of this song?).Though I kinda like the
concept of the album-it was built on the imaginary interview with the band
it is about band’s life at all.
The album opens with pointless jamming and painfull for me vocal parts of
idiotic title track.For me,it is the worst song Gentle Giant ever wrote and
easily in my personal top 15 worst songs.Fortunately,the next song-“Give It
Back”-is really the ONLY good song on here-cool small raggae with “soft” Derek
Shulman’s singing.”Design” is mothing but long and boring 5-minutes 3RD re-write
of “Knots” in a row(follow the “So Sirence”-“On Reflection” dilogy).The only
funny moment of the song is an opening part,when the interviewer ask band:”How
can you describe your own music?” and then goes the following collage of the
answers of the members of the band.VERY funny.
The second side opens with the re-write of “Cogs In Cogs” from The Power
And The Glory called “Another Show”.Derek sings just terrible and the
melody sucks.Such hard and degeneratic nooding can REALLY make you feel the
terrible headache.
“Empty City” is absolutely pointless song that shows the classic “how-to-ruin-the-good-and-quite-beautiful-melody-with-the
blast-of-self-loving-garbage”.”Timing” has quite nice Gary Green guitar solo,but
nothing more.And what with that vocal parts?Who needs 30 or so seconds with
Derek Shulman singing with his terrible voice and screaming “Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiming!!!!”?!
Finally,the ending “mini-suite” called “I Lost My Head” is:a)divided into
two parts that I can’t really know what is the first part and what it is the
second;b)lost in jamming that can bore me to sleep and,finally,-c)pure degeneratism
in its worst form possible.
And so,this s,though the fan-favourite,is the first and las misstep that made
Gentle Giant lost all of their somekind of popularity and finally disbanded.Please,don’t
buy this one-this must be the warning to the all generations.
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