GENTLE GIANT

My first review of a GG recording, must go to this 1970 masterpiece. Gentle Gaint (The Album) is born in the earliest melting pot of Prog. and in that perspective its stunningly progressive, with a lot of Jazz, Folk and Chamber/Classic inspiration, combines with a Heavy Blues and even Rock-n-Roll (on "Why Not"). With an instrumentation spanning as unlikely instruments (at the time) as: cello, sax, trumpet, xilophone, tenor horn and violin. All track are destinct Gentle Gaint and even though there is a lack of those "1 track masterpieces" that you will find on those famous later Gaint records, this recording in my mind comes out more as a unit, than recordings like "Three Friends" and "Interview" If it was the only recording by Gentle Gaint, it would easily get 5+ stars, and it is a masterpiece of prog, and a must have. But in the light of ,"Acquiring the Taste", "Octopus", "In a Glass House" and "Free Hand" that we now know was to follow, it may seems more Appropriate to give it a 4,5 star rating rounded down. Not because it dosent deserve 5 stars, only to keep in mind that even better records was released later.

Fantastic cover by George Underwood, couldent imagine a more perfect image of the Giant.