IN A GLASS HOUSE

Absolutely, this is the Giant at its peak. Even with the departure of one of the Shulmans, they seemed to come up revitalized from their last album at the time (Octopus). In A Glass House has elements that once again, proved that only the Giant could do an effort like this one, and this is one of the reasons that the album was not accepted by their american record label, calling it uncommercial. Let's get into reviewing the songs.

"The Runaway" starts with one of the most brilliant album openings, that has everything related to the album name. That glass shattering intro, and even the rhythm that was made up with the shattering sounds, could only be considered genious job. And when the band comes up, it comes all of a sudden with a very powerful guitar riff done by Gary Green, accompanied by a fantastic bass line provided by Ray Shulman. Derek Shulman's vocals in this track must be highlighted, too.

"An Inmates Lullaby" is a very original song that comes as a vocalized-percussion song. Its harmony is very interesting, and it develops by the use of xylophones. Fantastic song, I've never heard another band doing something like this.

"Way Of Life" might be described as a funk-medieval mix of a song, with its first part devoted to a funky riff developed by the exotic Giant ways. And so, in the middle section, we have a beautiful medieval melody provided by Kerry Minnear, that makes the song reach a peak of epicness. Just awesome.

"Experience" got the exactly name that it's worth having. It could be described as a great musical experience, with very irregular time signatures. It seems that each instrument is playing a different song! The result is awesome, proggish than ever! The middle section, powered by Derek Shulman's vocals and by Gary Green's guitar solo is just amazing. An successfully experience that provided very good results.

"A Reunion" is the shortest song in the album, but it doesn't mean that it's inferior. The main vocal melody, with Minnear's voice, fits in perfectly. Also, the cello background is just perfect, too.

"In A Glass House" is maybe the greatest song of the album, and one of the hardest rocking GG songs, in their own special manner of rocking! That opening, no other band could do something like that. This song changed my way of viewing music. It combines perfectly various elements of the distinctive GG sound.

Therefore, this album is worth having by every prog fan, and could be easily put aside with the greatest albums of the genre. 5 big stars!!!