CIVILIAN

Civilian is the eleventh and last album from Gentle Giant. Gentle Giant had with their previous album Giant for a Day hit the bottom. It was a bad mistake to release that album. It alienated almost everyone of their original fans and allthough I´m not sure about this statement I don´t think many new fans came as a consequence of Giant for a Day. Civilian is a bit better without being outstanding like the first nine albums from the band.

On Civilian Gentle Giant employ a more hard rocking AOR approach compared to the somewhat soft rock on Giant for a Day. It suits them well IMO and there are even some very decent songs on Civilian. The mood is a bit darker too which is best heard in a song like the opener Convenience (Clean And Easy) but certainly also in other songs.

The musicianship is great as always but Civilian like Giant for a Day totally lacks the virtuosic playing of the past which means that a very important part of Gentle Giant´s sound is missing.

The production is good. It´s easy to hear that Gentle Giant is now influenced by the new sounds of the eighties. The bass and drums still have that nice soft seventies quality though. It´s more in the choice of keyboard sounds and use of choirs that I hear this influence.

Civilian is actually a good album IMO and if you like AOR rock this album will probably rock your world. I can´t say that I´m a big fan of that particular genre, but I find an album from that genre that I like now and again and Civilian is a good example of that. Good but nothing more. 3 small stars is deserved for this album. Too bad a great band like Gentle Giant didn´t go out with a bang.