ACQUIRING THE TASTE

The Giant's second album is a lot better effort than the first one, but they don't really quite nail the high point yet (Octopus was still to come, and that's often reffered to as their magnum opus) however this album offers extreme satisfaction for a REAL proghead. This music is as progressive as prog rock will be. But that is also what makes this album a bit tough to digest at first.

Medieval-esqué melodies, very intricate melodies, and perhaps the most unusual chord progressions ever. Dare to listen? Right by Pantagruel's Nativity one can sense the uniqeness that Gentle Giant had. The playing is top-of-the-line throughout the entire album, and not for one moment will you get bored, since the Giant tends to shift chords and melodies more often than a race-car driver shifts gears.

There's a lot of variety on this album, from the gloomy darkness of Edge of Twilight, with it's spooky vocals to the sing-a-long ''Heeey-yay-eh, hold on!'' in Wreck and to the lengthy, rocky guitar solo in The House, The Street, The Room. These songs are all lovely rides through a quite different area in prog. This is not like Yes, or King Crimson. This is not even in between. At points however one feels that there is just too much going on for the bands own good. Among the great tracks are also some mediocre songs, such as The Moon Is Down (one which I'm not very fond of) or the title track.

A very solid effort by a very, very unique band. I find it to be full of extremely great musicianship, but it's also crammed with moments of pure self-indulgence. Extremely complex, no doubt. But that doesn't neccesarily make it a really great album just because it's prog. 3 stars. Thank you for reading!