OCTOPUS

Expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular. This was Gentle Giant's vision and goal. And wow did they ever do just that. Especially with Octopus (1972). This album to me is the pinnacle of progressive music. I sometimes wonder why In the court of the crimson king got such good publicity in terms of being the first example for prog rock. Had Octopus come out a couple years earlier, it probably would've gotten the same recognition Crimson got. Nonetheless, it actually should have far more recognition than it got but I guess that's the way it happens sometimes. Anyway, if I were to explain the prog genre to someone, this is the album I'd use. It's all there, the melodies, time changes, odd rhythms and not to mention excellent musical solidarity. The only unusual thing about this record is the song lengths which are rather short in time. However, don't let this fool you as Gentle Giant can take a 20 min song and put it into 3-4min of intense progressive music. I highly recommend this album to anyone interested in taking a walk into the world of progressive music.