THE MISSING PIECE

THE MISSING PIECE was GENTLE GIANT's first more catchy album. It is often said that Gentle Giant has lost its quality on this CD but such statements are not fair, in my opinion. This album contains some of my favourite GENTLE GIANT-songs (for example the sad ballad "Memories Of Old Days", probably the last song that is played in the old style of the band and the blithteful "As Old As You're Young" which has a pretty nice message) and even the more catchy tunes like "Two Weeks In Spain", "Winning" or "For Nobody" really get me.

Of course THE MISSING PIECE has also its faults. For example the song "Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It", a punk-anecdote simply does not fit into the rocky, usually blitheful mood of the album, some people may think that songs like "I'm Turning Around" or "Who Do You Think You Are?" are too poppy (I would not share this opinion though I have to admit that these songs are the most catchy tunes on THE MISSING PIECE) and some may rightly say that coltish, spacy,a bit longer solos - so as we can find them on the previous recordings of GENTLE GIANT - are missing.

But, progheads, this album has its moments, it contains some truly good material. And it is still a true GENTLE GIANT-album (other than GIANT FOR A DAY or maybe also CIVILIAN), it even contains a ballad (the last ballad the band had written, I am talking about the great "Memories Of Old Days" again which may be my favourite GENTLE GIANT-song).

I usually would love to give THE MISSING PIECE four stars. But then it comes to my mind that I used to give such albums as ACQUIRING THE TASTE, THREE FRIENDS or OCTOPUS four stars which are a bit better than THE MISSING PIECE, I think. But no doubt, this album is still pure quality. So, three stars that scrape the four-star-mark!