GIANT FOR A DAY

I suppose after "The Missing Piece", where Gentle Giant began in the direction of, but had not completely gone into making pop music, that this should not have been a surprise. It was a disappointment no less.

Words From The Wise begins the album with some big harmonies. At this point it could go in either direction, toward prog or pop. But then the instruments come in, with faceless arena pop riffs. Occasionally, it sounds as if the band wants to throw in something interesting, but less artistic producers prevail.

Thank You, a completely bland pop ballad, could have been released by just about every third tier pop band. A better title, and message to their fans, would have been what Cee Lo Green calls Forget You.

Giant For A Day is only slightly better. It's a fairly straight rock piece, almost new wave, where Gary Green at least gets to play some nice, but not astounding guitar fills.

Spooky Boogie is the only bone thrown to Gentle Giant's prog base. It's a case of too little, too late.

Take Me has some nice interplay between Kerry Minnear's electric piano and Ray Shulman's bass. But the song is ruined by a poor chorus.

Little Brown Bag opens the second side of the album. It rocks as hard as any song on this album. But, Little Brown Bag? Really?

Friends, an acoustic guitar piece, is just insipid. It makes me want no friends. No Stranger is no better. It's Only Goodbye could have been a good song, but instead chooses schmaltz.

Rock Climber tries hard. It almost has some prog. But no.

This rivals some of Genesis' and ELP's later albums for the title of "worst album by a once great band". For some bands, this would be a two star album, but considering the greatness Gentle Giant had once achieved, it only gets one.

The album cover suggest that you cut it up to create a Gentle Giant mask. You may want to leave the record inside when doing so.