THREE FRIENDS

After the very artistic and slightly introverted 'Acquiring the Taste' the band comes with a third album that is perhaps even moodier and less direct than its predecessor. Listed as eclectic prog, albums like this would perhaps be easier to understand if approached from an avant-prog angle. On 'Three Friends' the differences between songs couldn't be greater. It is an concept album about the life path of three friends reaching different social statuses, but the band doesn't impose on the listener with its story-line. The opening track is a mystical jazz-influenced rock track with chamber influences and highly creative vocal layers. 'Schooldays' is a quiet and mathematical song with leads of combined vibraphone and clean electric guitar; it's playful and intimate, yet mature and unique. 'Working All Day' is a pompous brass-rock song with a nice instrumental middle section with great organs by Kerry Minnear. 'Peel The Paint' starts as a psychedelic folk song with string-quartet interludes. The second part of the song is however the loudest heavy prog song the band ever recorded. The guitar solo of Gary Green (accompanied only by drums) has beautiful harmonies in its stacked notes because of him playing over his own echoes. The last two tracks ('Mister Class and Quality' and the title track) sound like one big avant-prog piece meant to play with established notions of the symphonic prog suite. The free noodling in the opening is a pretext for the complex ending of the song with its seemingly endless run of intricate symphonic prog passages. The verses get ever more complex and the playful instrumental parts hint of what direction the band was to take in the future. Like on all Gentle Giant albums there are some less interesting moments (for instance the verses of 'Working All Day'), but this album has so much unique musical ideas and variation in instrumentation/tones that it should definitely be seen as an essential album for the broader progressive genre.