OCTOPUS

If some person were to ask you, "hey, what is this prog rock stuff?" you could start telling them about this rock music that's adventurous, ambitious, beautiful, challenging, complex, etc. etc... or you could just throw on "Knots" from this album. I'm glad to exist in this universe where the creatures join together and cook up something as wildly genius as "Knots". Positively the most intricate, head-spinning, disorienting vocal arrangement ever (revered and imitated by such bands as Spock's Beard), rivalled in complexity only by a few of Gentle Giant's other compositions; as well as one of the most magical and timeless endings I've ever heard (with the multiple vocal layers, and frenetic drums...) -- this is far beyond songwriting, this is "musical architecture". Beyond "Knots," the entire album consists of masterful music making, and is a perfect place to get acquainted with GG's delightfully skewed sense of musical logic -- actually, not everyone likes this stuff the first time they hear it. Actually, more typically, most everyone DOESN'T like this stuff the first time they hear it. But what good things in life come without effort and appreciation? One of the best albums ever made (...followed by even "better" best albums ever made).