OCTOPUS

Consolidated after their first three excellent albums, Gentle Giant condenses in "Octopus" (1972), their fourth album, the guidelines that cemented their path: a unique combination of jazz, baroque, folk, blues, classical, and any other genre that fulfilled the sacred objective: to expand the frontiers of popular music. The eight tentacles of this musical mollusk were designed to make sure to include all the contributions that add value to the final result.

From the opening vocal counterpoints of the jazzy and voluble "The Advent of Panurge" full of instrumental twists and turns, or Ray Shulman's violins in the medieval "Raconteur Troubadour" that recreates the wanderings of a period troubadour in first person, or the aggressiveness of Gary Green's riffs in the hard-rocker "A Cry for Everyone", or also the experimentation of the Crimsonian "Knot" with that game of choral layers interacting with dysfunctional sonorities and a surprising mini xylophone solo by John Wheaters, "Octopus" is the climax of a proposal as innovative as risky, something that the band always bet on, moving away from any conventionalism.

And the plurality of elements and nuances does not stop flowing in "Octopus", with the very progressive and instrumental "The Boys in the Band" and Kerry Minnear's choppy display of hammonds and moogs, with the fun and folkloric "Dog's Life" and Ray's violins and arpeggiated guitars, also with the beautiful and emotive "Think of Me with Kindness" guided by Minnear's cozy vocals and keyboards, and concludes with "River", an electronic foray that Green complements with an excellent bluesy guitar solo, in one of the best moments of the polychromatic album.

"Octopus" is one more jewel of Gentle Giant, to which, as it happened throughout the career of the British, the commercial success did not smile, but it did help the consolidation of the progressive genre in its most eclectic variant.

4/4.5 stars