IN A GLASS HOUSE

I don't give five stars lightly. If an album is to receive five stars from me then it's got to have something extra-extra-extraordinary. Gentle Giant's (probably) most controversial masterpiece does have that. In A Glass House is a genre-defining work of art, rock, folk, conceptual art, again: you name it. ITCOCK eat your heart out!

As compositions, the songs maybe aren't as strong as on some other GG albums (mainly ATT, octopus and/or Free Hand), but as a whole In A Glass House brings progressive rock onto another, unseen level.

Again it's useless to pinpoint the best songs, because those who have the ability to admire their writing will have have their opinions, and when it comes to Gentle Giant, the question is always more about opinions than with any other band. What strikes me with IAGH is the variety of styles. Within minutes the band goes over from the most introspective (An Inmate's Lullaby) to fairly easily-approachable (A Reunion) or even to an absolute classic prog rock tune (In A Glass House).

One remarkable thing in In A Glass House is that it was Gentle Giant's first album as a quintet, without Phil Shulman's saxophones. In my opinion, that really was a tremendous loss, but Gentle Giant wouldn't have been Gentle Giant if they hadn't made that loss their gain as well. In A Glass House truly is a masterpiece of progressive music, never mind the genre, and should be a revelation to any prog rock fan.