THE POWER AND THE GLORY

Ahh, the first Gentle Giant album I ever bought. It was the first one released in Brazil too. It was a big moment for me, since one of my best friends, a guy five years older considered GG to be the best band in the world. So I had to agree: at 14 I used to follow his recomendations as a novice to the master. Of course we used to clash, since our tastedsnot always were the same. But I had so much respect for him and, beside, he used to let me record his imported albums collection in my small cassette recorder. Among them of course were many GG albums.

The CD itiself was the first to reach a broader audience, it was their most popular for a long time. I guess the album's subject (power and corruption in politics) also helped. While many bands were using fantasy themes or spaced out poetry for lyrics, Gentle Giant could not be talking about more down to earth issues. But the music also changed a bit: this is a far more keyboards driven album them previous effords. Like one reviewr pointed out cleverly, this is mostly Kerry Minnear's baby. The music is still complex, interesting and challeging, but for the first time it seems a bit less energetic than all their earlier records. Later the band complained the fact that the more famous they became, the more hectic was their touring and recording demands, leaving less time for writing and recording.

Whatever the reasons, Power And The Glory showed a slight decrease in quality. Nevertheless, it has many great numbers and at least three classic tracks: Proclamation, Cogs in Cogs and The Face. Agiai there are no fillers and, if not their best, this CD is quite superior to 95% of what ewas being released at the time. My CD has a non album bonus track (The Power And The Glory. Nice touch!) Compared to their other works, this one rates between 3,5 and 4 stars (rounded up to full 4 stars for personal reasons). Another fine release by one of prog's most original and influential bands ever.