OCTOPUS

Gentle Giant is one of the biggest names in 70's progressive rock, and Octopus is arguably their most famous album among prog fans. Gentle Giant is a band that has never impressed me very much, though I must admit that I find Octopus to be a rather enjoyable album.

Octopus is very obviously a Gentle Giant album to anyone familiar with the band. This is unquestionably their distinct sound, and you can tell that from the first track alone. Expect to hear a lot of vocal harmonies, complex arrangements, and short songs (by progressive rock standards). Of course, the musicianship is fantastic, as we're always used to from Gentle Giant. The vocals take center stage on this album, as there are very few instrumental breaks. I wish there would have been a bit more focus on the instrumentation, but it's a minor complaint considering how fantastic the vocals are.

From a compositional standpoint, I find this album to be a bit weak. It seems to jump from style to style far too often, and I feel a bit of a lack of consistency. I'm not a big fan of the arrangements either. Again, I wish there would have been more consistency in the compositions and focus on instruments rather than just vocals. With that said, the production qualities are fantastic, especially for only 1972. Octopus is way ahead of it's time in terms of production quality.

Conclusion:

Octopus is a good album by Gentle Giant even though I don't care for it very much. None of the music ever really grabs me, despite the fact that it's of very high quality. This is a good definition of a 3 star rating. Even though many people love this album and this band, I've never showed much interest in them. However, if you want to hear Gentle Giant, this is a good representation of their sound, and a good starting point as well.

3 stars.