GIANT FOR A DAY

After the good " The Missing Piece", Gentle Giant lose their inspiration and they could not make progress along the new direction they have taken. In fact, GIANT FOR A DAY is the album of the definitive detachment from progressive rock, the only one where Minnear does not sing and has a clearly secondary role in the group's music, being a quite trivial guitar-oriented album.

After the nice but repetitive vocal harmonies of the opening piece (Words From the Wise, vote 7,5), follows a simple acoustic ballad, in Roger Hodgson style (Supertramp) but not very effective, sometimes inascible (Thank You, vote 5,5/6). The third song (Giant for a Day, vote 7,5/8) is at least original and introduces new sounds and new singing in the production of GG. The fourth piece is an instrumental worthy of a soundtrack of a grotesque film (Spooky Boogy, vote 7). "Take Me" is a funkpop that follows the easy listening of side A (vote 7+).

With "Little Brown Bag" (vote 7) the sound goes to the land of hard rock, but without real conviction. The GG seem beginners or retired musicians who write just to earn some extra money. The two minutes of "Friends" (written by the drummer Weathers) seem to say that the GG do not take it seriously (vote 6,5). In fact, another song comes, "No Stranger", where the group's commitment is minimal (vote 6+). Instead with "It's Only Goodbye" (vote 8), the GGs look for the epic melody, and they succeed: the most beautiful romantic and commercial melodic ballad of the group comes out. The last piece (Rock Climber, vote 7+) is a bogie rock.

Giant for a Day is a commercial album of pop and rock easy listening, with melodic interventions, which has no internal consistency but that seeks only the success of the charts but does not succeed. The GG are wasted for this type of music (and Derek Shulman does not have the right voice), and we see that they do not take it seriously as those who really breaks through the charts.

Medium quality: 7,025; Vote album: 6+; Two Stars