THREE FRIENDS

where the previous two albums where somewhat frantic in approach, Three Friends takes a more melodie based approach, with an important contribution from Kerry Minnear on keyboards, and of course the distinct vocal harmonies that are an intricate part of Gentle Giants sound, guitar and sax are very nice also. Only the drums are weaker than on previous and future efforts, they are reduced to mere background rock, with little to no contribution to the sounds and structure, I substract a star just because of it.

Three Friends seems to be a concept album, about three schoolfriends who drift apart as they grow into manhood, not a really good storie, and textual not really deep, but the music, and the vocal lines make up for what they failed to accomplish on a textual level.

1. Prologue (6:12) An imediatly likeble good song, with strong bass play at the intro, accompagnied by some great keyboards and a very well developed tune, the vocals are fabulous. very good melodies carried by a strong groove, changes very fast, just great.

2. Schooldays (7:33) A Kerry Minnear show-piece, mostly carried by Kerry's keyboard work and great soft vocal harmonies canoning, and a happy guitar melodie, which occasionaly take over from the keyboards. In the middle is a little piano piece, very slow, with equally slow vocals, gets a little boring, but gain in intensity at the end, which is more faster, and certainly better than the middle piece.

3. Working All Day (5:07) Some VDGG influence in the structure and intensity of the song, a reasonably good song, but could have done with some better drums.

4. Peel The Paint (7:25) An intimate start, with some classical inspired music, very slowely and delicatly the music develops to sudenly change into a more intense dense heavy rock format. The final is even more rock, with a guitarsolo, using echo and repeat. If you know the song Brighton Rock from Queen, you know how it sounds. Fabulous.

5. Mister Class And Quality? (5:51) Steady (not very good) rock drums, with amazingly great flashy keyboard and bass play, good moments throughout, but not enough to make it a great song.

6. Three Friends (3:00) This is where the music all comes together, keyboards, guitar, bass and all other instruments in one cohesive play, a great symphonic piece of music.

Overall Three Friend is a very good record, minor point is the drum play, which isn't as good as on previous and later albums, but besides that it's a good record, especially the keyboards make it a worthwile experience. I'll give it only three stars (one for each friend), but if it wasn't for the drumming I would probably give it four stars, on the strength of the guitar play, the keyboards and the first song. Give it a try, for you might like it.