IN A GLASS HOUSE

In A Glass House is what most prog bands try to step on the tier of. It's very hard to create a thoughtful and intriguing album that's melodically strong and entirely consistent throughout, and In A Glass House does that well. Gentle Giant always proves to have a strong sense of emotion and melody while being a musician's band with very intricate and dexterous compositions and In A Glass House is a prime example. There is truly not a weak song here, and each is distinctive while still carrying the heavily substanced Gentle Giant flavor.

The Runaway winds through many time signatures and melodies while proving to be instrumentally spicy and beautiful at the same time. It's like good food. The overlapping patterns are intricate but still accessible, think of Captain Beefheart songs but the textures and playing patterns seem to click more and are less demanding and more difficult.

An Inmate's Lullaby reminds one of Pink Floyd's songs about insanity but keeps an upbeat tone, leaving it beautiful and ugly at the same time, it's extremely pleasant. Derek Shulman can turn just about any lyric into something thoughtful and the rest of the band, especially Kerry can make anything melodically impressive and great sounding, and this song is especially impressive being all percussion.

Way of Life is one of the most experimental pieces, the most winding and changing on the album, but still able to improvise over with the melody, it's a very variable piece, and reaches droning at the end. It's a very solid song, upbeat almost like disco! However, let's see the Bee Gees pull that one off.

Experience is a great example of the Gentle Giant sound, medieval and complex. In so, it is one of Gentle Giant's best compositions, reaching unpredictable moments and times of virtuoso patterning by the players in just playing the melodies alone, it's truly fantastic. I'd also like to mention the wonderful vocal harmonies in this one!

A Reunion is fantastic because it's all strings besides the piano, it shows that you can make a full sound in rock this way. It's an emotional song with beautiful melody and yet another strong tune on the album.

In A Glass House is in my opinion the best on the album, it having the most engaging melodies and the best playing, the violin is excellent especially. This song also shows off Derek Shulman's powerful voice very well, I don't understand why a lot of people complain about his voice. The entire song is engaging! A great way to fade into the closing collage piece of the album.

All in all, not many albums are as strong or even as consistent in what they're trying to do, let alone consistent with songs as strong as Gentle Giant's, this is a masterpiece.