ACQUIRING THE TASTE

I will rate myself at level 1 for Gentle Giant's Acquiring the Taste. The only song from it that I have an indication that I have heard before is, The House, The Street, The Room. I do tend to enjoy GG, though, and expect that will hold true here.

Track 1 - Pantagruel's Nativity

We begin with a melancholy melody on a synth. High pitched vocals join in at a moderate tempo accompanied in a subtle way by the band. A mellotron chord begins to crescendo on the left speaker and the band plays a few accented phrases. The melody takes back over with flute and trumpets joining in. The accented phrases return to take us to a different section of the song, which becomes very quiet, before the band led by distorted guitar takes over. GG's choral singing style comes into play next. Then we have a horn section break before a vibraphone solo begins. A guitar solo follows that. The guitar riff from earlier leads us to the next verse with the polyphonic choral singing. The riff returns, with a trumpet featured. Then we have another verse, similar to the beginning. The guitar riff concludes the track. It was pretty good but a bit disjointed to me.

Track 2 - Edge of Twilight

Once again, it begins a bit melancholy with dissonant chords backing the vocals. On the second verse there is a reverse recorded sound that pans across the speakers. This is a very mellow track, thus far. There are vocals underneath an upright bass and tom-tom bed. Next there are some kind of fantasy, arpeggiated sounds. Following that, the drums and percussion takes over in a sort of 20th century classical music sort of way. The next verse returns with the reverse recorded sounds. This is not my favorite GG song that I have heard, It was even more disjointed than the first one.

Track 3 - The House, The Street, The Room

I have heard this one before, but not enough to really remember it. We start with a riff that sounds like a cross between Hang on Sloopy and Hall of the Mountain King. Vocals join then the dynamic level comes down, and we have a bit of harpsichord. Then the riff returns, and we cycle through in a similar way. At just under 2 minutes, we have an instrumental break, started with piano in a classical style, before multitudes of different instruments take turns joining in. Then suddenly at 2:40, we have a Hendrix-y style unaccompanied guitar solo, but it is only very briefly unaccompanied, the band joins in with some prominent Hammond organ and some unusual percussive sound while the guitar solo continues. The underlying rhythm is in odd meters. The initial riff returns after the solo, and we cycle through the earlier sections. We end with the random instruments from the 2-minute point of the song. This has been my favorite track so far. Lots of GG quirkiness, but it holds together better as a song than the first 2 tracks for me.

Track 4 - Acquiring the Taste

Another case of the shortest track on the album (1:37) being the title track. Different synth sounds are being layered in a melodic way as a brief instrumental interlude.

Track 5 - Wreck

Very cool riff! First played by clean guitar and bass, joined by a big fat synth sound and drums. Now we're talking! The riff backs the vocals which are very much in a call & response style. The harmony parts in the response remind me of 3 Dog Night's version of Liar. Then we have a quieter section with classical instruments accompanying the vocal. I REALLY like this one! The band fades out for a recorder ensemble with harpsichord. Very renaissance (not the band but the time period). The band and vocals return. This would be a great crowd participation song. Did any of my old school GG fans see them back in the 70s? Did they do this one live? I hope so. This one is now my favorite track on the album so far, and one of the best GG tracks I have heard.

Track 6 - The Moon is Down

We begin with strings and woodwinds. A lot of this album has a very "20th Century Classical Music" style. The band's voices join in and the rhythm section and harpsichord (again!) joins in. Lots of little "incidental" sounds. The tempo increases into a 5-4 riff. A horn section joins in. There is a very captivating instrumental break. The tempo slows back down, and the vocals return. Good track.

Track 7 - Black Cat

We begin in 7-4 here. There are signature layered GG vocals. Violins and strings take over for a moment, to be followed by quirkiness. The vibra-slap is used prominently. This is almost like a less-intense King Crimson track. Kinda cool.

Track 8 - Plain Truth

The longest track at 7:36. We start with what I initially thought was a wah-wah guitar, but then changed my mind to think it's a violin. The riff reminds me at times of the March to The Scaffold from Pictures at an Exhibition. Then, everything changes, as one might expect in prog! At 45 seconds in, the band kicks in full-on with vocals. Lots of changing meters. A variation of the riffage begins at 1:45 and we have an instrumental break. The band comes back in following that with a cycle of the sections that preceded the instrumental break. Things quiet back down at around 3:30. Nice bass playing at around 4:40. I believe again that this is an electric violin taking the lead. I like how the band is gradually building in intensity. Yep, definitely violin. I believe Charlie Daniels may have been inspired by the way that solo ended, as it sounds like the Devil's violin solo in the Devil went Down to Georgia. At 6:30 the band drops out and the violin takes over again. There is a big riff to close this one out.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

Wow, great prog again from Gentle Giant! Unfortunately, the first 2 tracks weren't the best. Thankfully things started getting better with the third track. I'll give this a 4 out of 5. Might have been a bit higher if it weren't for the first two songs.