THE MISSING PIECE

The album begins with Gentle Giant trying something new. "Two Weeks In Spain" is dedicated to the working class holiday. It fuses elements of punk and progressive music, and in my opinion, quite successfully. It's catchy, it's fun, and you can still hear some old Gentle Giant in there. The next track, "I'm Turning Around", is quite rubbish. This is their attempt at a straightforward pop song. How embarrassing! After this pure pop song, comes a pure punk song. "Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It" has a typical sounding guitar solo, average composition. Nothing to write home about. The next two songs are just enjoyable rock and roll. Nothing too complex or progressive. This brings the first side to a close.

The second side brings GG back to the golden years! While still retaining some elements of pop music, they managed to compose four outstanding tracks, that measure up with some of their best albums. "As old as You're Young" sounds really cool, and uses some badass chords around half way through. "Memories of old Days" is the slower track, but manages to be quite progressive and very well written. "Winning" is just Gentle Giant awesomeness. It's everything you know them for, executed very well. The final song is "For Nobody". This adrenaline filled joy ride is complex, speedy. and draws the album to a very cool close.

Overall, though the first side experiments with some pop and punk music elements with varying success, but the second side is awesome. Though I should probably give this album 3 stars, I'm giving it four for the sake of recommendation. Don't let this one slip through your fingers! There is some great stuff on here.