THREE FRIENDS

Finally a Gentle Giant review by me. And there was a reason I always avoided this band. Somewhere around 2004/2005 I checked a lot of mp3's on this site and one of them was the till then unknown Gentle Giant. To be honest I didn't like any of the odd sounding tracks which are the nowadays streamtracks. Because of the disappointment I never gave them another chance. But after spending much more time on PA I found out that not only lots of people like them (a lot) but also many reviewers who share more or less the same taste (as mine) happened to be fan of GG. So there had to be something I hadn't noticed yet. Recently I decided to have another go at all their streamtracks and came to the conclusion that Prologue from this album Three Friends was at least bearable and actually more than that. I found the album in the store and decided to give it a chance.

Prologue was a pretty normal song for GG standard in my believe. There is enough melody here that I can appreciate and right now I even kinda like it (surprise surprise). 3,75*.

I was intrigued by Schooldays because of the huge appreciation it got in several reviews. And an intriguing song it is. The vocals initially remind me of Camel but the instrumental handling as well as the compositional structure is totally different. I like the sudden switch towards the end of the complex song. 3,5*.

Working all Day is more like one of those tracks by the band that put me off. It doesn't sound totally ridiculous to me, I don't want to go that far but to say it's wonderful music would be foolish, at least according to my taste. The middle (instrumental) part of the song is pretty good though. 3,25*.

Peel the Paint is the second longer song of the album and is a bit of a darkish sounding one, again complex with almost screaming vocals. I like the guitar halfway down the track but it goes too far to call this track a truly brilliant effort. I appreciate it though because it really is something special. 3,5*.

Mister Class and Quality is a short typical GG song especially instrumentally spoken. I think it's the least exciting song of the album. Still quite good. 3*.

The previous song smoothly runs on into the last track of the album, the title track. It's starts with a great instrumental part followed by a typical GG vocal contribution. In the second half of the song an interesting organ dominated instrumental part concludes the song and the album. Best track of the album. 4*.

I can't deny this is a very good album. Gentle Giant will never be my band, same as eclectic prog will never be really for me. But if I have to work my way through an album from these famous proggers it might as well be this one. It almost makes me want more. But if I ever take another GG-album it will have to be at least as good as this one and I doubt if there is such an album. The average according to the individual rating is exactly 3.5*. And since I see no reason to round that down to three stars I will give four.