THE MISSING PIECE

This is the end, really. Just one song (the last one and the longer one) and it is very aptly named Memories of Old Days, that would fit into the previous Lp, but it was a staple in their later live shows too. But for the rest: the songs would be good for another rock band that might have done their masterpiece with this material but simply not for this Giant. Everything spells different on those tracks of the first side of the album, starting with Derek's increasingly irritating vocals, but the most obvious being the "simplified" songwriting. Don't get me wrong, here?. GG didn't turn into Status Quo. The songs are still well written and arranged, but they are written with the conscious effort of conquering the US market and therefore the temptation to beef up the tunes and AOR-izing them is unfortunately all too present. And of course , it doesn't work very well since it is un-GG-like. A real let-down. I do not rate highly Power & Freehand but for other reasons, not for mediocrity of this one. And the worst is yet to come........