THE POWER AND THE GLORY

Continuing with the amazing catalog of Gentle Giant records, it is time for me to talk about "The power and the glory". As I said in another review: it is very hard for me to be objective when it comes to one of my favorite bands ever, but I'll do my best. The style this album has is kind of heavier than some of their previous albums, we can find some more precise rock tracks in here and it is absolutely great to hear an album in which the creativity and originality of the tracks remain as fresh as in its predecessors.

"Proclamation" is a very aggressive entrance that tells us the album is going to be very interesting, it's a Prog Rock piece that switches from a slow vocal piece to a more moved and powerful middle section, great opening. In "So sincere" we find a very interesting change of rhythms, I just adore how well these guys mix the Jazzy notes with the elegant complex Rock they play. In "Aspirations" we get a total calm soft piece with very harmonic vocals, acoustic guitar, soft percussions, and the incessant keyboard line.

"Playing the game" has in some moments a kind of a funky vibe that reminds some Stevie Wonder songs but without losing the unique style of the Giant, this is only in the first part of the song though, since it makes a very elegant switch in the melody in which I hear some Canterbury Scene stylized keyboard solo that reminds me a little of Egg's first record, finally, the song returns to its funky initial rhythm.

"Cogs in cogs" is a much more energic song, once again we can find excellent changes in the structure of the song that goes from the powerful melody to a slower middle section. "No god's a man" seems to be an instrumental piece until the band starts to sing again, at first it sounds like something Frank Zappa would have played with The Mothers of Invention but without all the crazy screams and distorted saxophones, probably the song that I like the less in the album but not bad at all.

"The face" starts with a very folky stylized violin line that starts to zig-zag with the short instrumental initial part of the song; the instrumental middle section is one of my favorites of the album, what Ray Shulman was doing with the violin is almost hypnotic. "Proclamation" finds its reprise version with the title of "Valedictory", they took the melody and turned it slower, and with a more obscure tone, you can feel the end is near.

The album ends with the song that gives it the title, I'm not pretty sure but I think this song was added as a bonus track since it wasn't part of the original tracklist, however, it is worth listening to it, the structure is a slow-played rock piece with a great organ line that makes it sound almost like a hymn.

One more absolutely essential masterpiece of the Giant of prog.

SONG RATING: Proclamation, 5 So sincere, 5 Aspirations, 5 Playing the game, 5 Cogs in cogs, 5 No god's a man, 5 The face, 5 Valedictory, 4

AVERAGE: 4.88

PERCENTAGE: 97.5

ALBUM RATING: 5 stars

I ranked this album #29 on my TOP 100 favorite Progressive Rock albums of all time.

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