THE POWER AND THE GLORY

Compared to the previous album "Octopus", "The Power and the Glory" seems to have much more keyboards, partly because the clavinet can be really distinguished here, like on "No God's a man" and "The face", and that there are omnipresent distorted rhythmic organ and electric piano (Fender Rhodes). The departure of Phil Shulman significantly removed most of the brass instruments, thus allowing room for other instruments. Mostly the tracks are more nervous than ever, and the keyboards are absolutely RESTLESS! Gary Green's electric guitar is rarely hard rock here: he concentrates on accompanying and enhancing the nervous rhythm imposed by the lively and fast keyboards: so, he plays shorter and more clean notes. The bass and drums are excellent and very elaborated, but they seem to be a bit detached to the infernal duo keyboards-guitars! "Proclamation" has a psychedelic & bizarre bit, reminding some influences of the "Acquiring the taste" album. "So sincere" is strangely dissonant, which may be a bit irritating for those who like the cute melodic dissonance on Octopus, but it remains very structured. The next track, "Aspirations" is one of the most relaxing tracks from GENTLE GIANT: it seems to consist in slow Fender Rhodes notes and melodic & calm lead vocals: the track is "very" simple. The next 2 albums have a similar sound, but they are better recorded.

Rating: 4.5/5