THE POWER AND THE GLORY

For their time, Gentle Giant is the most forward moving, experimental music infused with classical and baroque influences such as JS Bach. And at this point, GENTLE GIANT were at their musical peak, and were soon to be at their commercial peak with their next album FREE HAND.

TP&TG is the second concept album in their discography (and not the last - see In'terview), after "Three Friends". It follows a young man, who, seeing corruption in the government, runs for office himself, only to succeed and inevitably become a cog in the system of which he'd fought to destroy. TP&TG is one of only a handful of concept albums that are truly coherent, and easily makes sense (along with "The Wall''), while others seem to go off on a drug infused tangent.

Musically, TP&TG is complex (as are most Gentle Giant albums), and compared to the albums of which had come before it, it's heavier, gloomier, and a somewhat depressing view of politics that (somewhat - there are still a few honest politicians) holds true to this.

It has a few standout tracks. "Proclamation" is one of the most well known and recognisable Gentle Giant tracks to this day, along with "Playing the Game" - the latter being the song which depicts the protagonists first dive into corruption. Other tracks include the enjoyable albeit strange "So Sincere", and the dirtier, heavier reprise of the opening track "Valedictory", and "Cogs in Cogs" which - ignoring "Knots" and "On Reflection" - is some of Shulman's best vocal work, alongside "The Face". "Aspirations" is the only song on the album of which he doesn't have lead vocals, this one being sung by Minnear, and it's beautiful, especially with Minnear's soft, angelic voice, making it a break from the albums heavier side (which promptly returns on the track after).

Also, the extra track named after the album thankfully can't impact on this rating, it's not bad, just a shift to mediocore from the rest of the album.

TP&TG is a landmark in Gentle Giant's discography, not only for being such a great album, but showing a shift into heavier music, before the plunge into the later disco/pop stuff from the missing piece era.