 | Acquiring the Taste (1971)Genres: progressive rock, heavy progressive |
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.
 | Three Friends (1972)Genres: progressive rock, heavy progressive |
review by thomas
On this, their third record, Giant plays hard and rough progressive rock. The story (being a concept album) is about childhood friendship being shattered in the process of growing up and the three childhood friends ending up in different social classes and environments. The album opens with the great “Prologue”, a heavy song with great saxes. Then comes the quietest song in the set, “Schooldays”, which focus on harmony voices and vibraphone. It gets loud and heavy again with “Working All Day”, again with great saxes, and “Peel the Paint”, giving you flashbacks to “The house, The Street, The Room” from “Acquiring the Taste”. The violin shows up nicely on “Mister Class and Quality?” which segues into the closing “Three Friends”, an atmospheric track with good organ.
As usual we are treated with awesome playing from the group, an interesting story and great arrangement. This album is certainly among Giant’s best, and though it sticks out a little with its heaviness, the Giant sound we all love is there. As usually, recommended for everyone.
The cover on my (American) CD is for some reason the same cover as on their first album; I guess their first album never made it into the American market. The sound quality on this version of ”Three Friends” is inferior to my other Gentle Giant CD’s, but it works pretty well.
 | Octopus (1973)Genres: progressive rock, canterbury |
review by thomas
A very popular Gentle Giant album among fans. This one has a strong medieval influence. It starts with one of the all-time favourite fan songs “The Advent of Panurge” and this one was probably also a favourite of the band since they “always” played it on their shows. It’s a complex piece like much of their work – I don’t really understand all the quirks and twists going on in the song; and I have owned “Octopus” for some years now! The same is true about the more unknown “River” that I cannot fully get into; is that a clue to that the song are not that good or is it just I who don’t comprehend all of the song? The latter I guess, since I really like the song.
Of course many bands can be complex and avantgarde to the maximum but without a sound. Giant have a sound though, believe me. Their famous harmony vocals were perhaps never better than on this album and all the numerous instruments are played in a real pleasant way for the listener. The harmony vocals are highlighted in “Knots” were they are the lead instrument. “Raconteur, Troubadour” are the most medieval sounding song in the set featuring the violin. It’s very beautiful. This was to be the last album with Philip Shulman and the first with drummer John Weathers.
The whole album is really strong without any major flaws. Certainly one of their best and the perfect Giant album to start with since it shows many of their different sides with the exclusion of the heavy rocking sound of, for example, the “Three Friends” album. Still “Octopus” is a good place to start.
 | Free Hand (1975)Genres: progressive rock |
review by thomas
Gentle Giant made their, perhaps, most medieval sounding album with ”Free Hand”. We have the typical Giant saxophone rocker in the starter “Just the Same”, a complex vocal harmony piece with lots of xylophone called “On Reflection”, the medieval sounding instrumental “Talybont” that sounds like it could have been performed at any fourteenth century court by some minstrels. We have a long (long in the Gentle Giant world) more quiet song in “His Last Voyage” and a violin rocker in “Mobile”. Then we have the outstanding title track were everything is extremely good. I tell you, those drums are sometimes the heaviest I have heard, and that from Gentle Giant! It points at their enormously wide scope in music. “Free Hand” is filled with quiet and acoustic moments together with heaviness and progressive rock of world class; this can be applied to both the song and the album. And of course the Giant trademarks shows up here and there: the recorders, vibraphones and xylophones, the violin and all things we know them for. Not a bad song in sight!
Anyone with a slightest interest in them should own this record.
