THE MISSING PIECE

As disco died a quick (but hopefully painful) death with the emergence of "new wave," and the sound of radio mercifully changed, many established Prog bands -- sometimes labeled "dinosaurs," or irrelevant, by the 'hip" spokespeople for the new music -- began to change too.

"The Missing Piece" reveals a "kinder, gentler" Giant, moving to shorter, less overtly-experimental songs that were almost radio-friendly. I believe that the song "I'm Turning Around" speaks at least in part to this issue: compromise, or starve. (Not that the new approach garnered them much air-time in my area....) One might therefore think that a long-term fan like myself would have hated this more "accessible" Gentle Giant, but not so: I always loved this album , because even "commercial" Giant is still wildly original music

From the rocking, rollicking fun of "Two Weeks in Spain," "Betcha Thought we Couldn't do It" (a barb for their critics), "Mountain Time," and "Winning" (which really rocks), to the delightful and uplifting "As Old as You're Young," to the sentimental pure-Prog majesty of "Memories of Old Days," this is one of the best latter-day GG albums. When I said that it showed a "kinder, gentler Giant" it was mostly because I couldn't resist the expression. But make no mistake: though the material often simpler than the classic early stuff, this album rocks! (For the record, I also liked the even more "updated" and hard-edged Civilian.)