review by thomas

Known for their skills on a vast number of instruments such as recorder, trumpet, cello, violin, xylophone, vibraphone and saxophones. This their second album is maybe best described with the group’s own statement taken from the album’s inner sleeve:

It is our goal to expand the frontiers of contemporary popular
music at the risk of being very unpopular. We have recorded
each composition with one thought – that it should be unique,
adventurous and fascinating. It has taken every shred of our
combined musical and technical knowledge to achieve this.

If they succeeded? Well, they were not very popular! Joking apart, the album was certainly “unique, adventurous and fascinating” in many ways. Still there are some bits and parts that don’t work. Some songs lack that something, you know that something that can’t be described in words. All the Gentle Giant trademarks are included on the album: their famous vocal harmonies, the saxophones, the violin, the heavy and rockier parts, the gentle and quiet bits, and not forgetting the xylophone parts.

Still a group in it’s early stages, searching for the right sound and working on arrangement and composition skills that were to be better and better. A good album, close to the next grade in our grading system.