THE POWER AND THE GLORY

The power of the Giant continues, as Power and the Glory offers many similarities to previous albums: at least two or three killer and completely unique songs, with plenty of vocal harmonies, syncopation, and catchy melodies.

Highlights: Valedictory/Proclamation, Cogs in Cogs, Playing the Game. Cogs offers what some Giant fans crave, with its vocal rounds and general complexity and unpredictability. I don't care for the song that much, but I sure like the creativity and thought that went into it. Playing the Game may be the album highlight for me, with a deceivingly catchy groove that you may mistake for Steely Dan if not paying enough attention. That title is ironic, because it really is true that the Giant can outplay the best at their own game! Playing the Game is just incredibly toe-tapping, and the xylophone syncopation really just puts it into its own league.

Proclamation and Valedictory work more as a sequence than individual songs, as there are really three variations on the central melody. The album opens with the funky syncopation between keys and vocals, and the intro track revisits this theme toward the end, only with speeded up tempo. Then Valedictory varies the theme by rocking out generally trashing (in a good way!) the initial theme. Here is Giant at its best: catchy melodies, wonderful musicianship (I love Weathers' work on drums here), frantic playing (i.e., the frenzied acceleration of Proclamation), and general creative weirdness (the bizarre keyed and tempoed "hail to power and to glory's way" chant in Proclamation/Valedictory).

Overall, plenty of great stuff to keep a discriminating progger's ear at attention, with the best material on this album stacking up comparably against the Giant's best on any album.