IN A GLASS HOUSE

If I consider the score and the number of reviews here on PA, In A Glass House is the masterpiece of GG. It is the first in this ranking. Instead I think it is one of their worst albums, despite being one of the most progressive.

Side A. 1) The Runaway 8; Brilliant the initial rhythmic rock of the first song, which then rattles off in a thousand variations and in some steps of their typical math rock, which towards in the end results a bit exasperated and repetitive. 2) An Inmates Lullaby 6.5/7; The second piece, as the title suggests, it's a lullaby; an original piece compared to the previous production, all choruses and percussions; it could remember (and make to regret) Edge of Twilight or Moon is Down. 3) Way of Life 7+; Third piece of a compulsive rock, very sustained, all keyboards, with reinassance variations, which in some places almost reaches an epic inspiration that however expires in math rock.

Side B. 4) Experience 6.5; Second side (worse than the first) with the same structure: two long rock tracks interspersed with a classic bracket. It starta with a rock piece that begins undertone, continues with a medieval intermezzo and continues in a very forced way (with bad guitar solo), little inspired. 5) A reunion 6+; Follows a brief parenthesis with the strings: an anonymous piece, without a great melody, subdued; 6) In a Glass House 7+; Conclusion with the piece that gives the title to the album (the longest of the GG after Nothing at All), a folk rock characterized by the violin and the sustained rhythm, that changes continuously, and suddenly, in a completely forced way: the piece doesn't know what direction it wants to take.

There is a lot of technique and a lot of sophistication, a lot of skill, but - with the exception of the first piece - there is not much inspiration in the pieces of this album, which in fact are the ones that remain the least in mind of all the classic production of the Gentle Giant. There is in fact no masterpiece, no classic, no melodically remarkable piece. In terms of arrangements, nothing new compared to Octopus, if not the absence of the winds, which makes the music more monotonous, also because compared to Octopus has lost in clarity and conciseness, as well as in melody, to become more convolute and repetitive . It is the progressive in full of its faults. In this album there is a band without inspiration that uses all his craft to create compositions according to the crism of progressive rock: but when you compose art without a real expressive urgency, thinking only of making a pedantic execution of the canons of a genre (musical or literary ), you get a formally flawless product, perhaps exalted by some lovers of the genre, but that is completely insipid emotionally and that seems unbearably didactic for those who do not like the genre.

Medium quality of the songs: 7,00. Rating = 6.5 / 7. Two stars. Very Overrated.