OCTOPUS

I've always thought of this as their most accessable album. Though with a song like Knots, I'm not sure why. I suppose we need to face the fact that Gentle Giant never really had an "accessable" album. Anyway, this is a fine example of their style and a good intro to the band I think.

The last album for brother Phil, it was also the start of their harder rocking and more angular style that would characterize every album up to and including Interview. This one retains a good bit of their midieval flair that was all over the previous albums however, in songs like A Dog's Life, Raconteur Troubadour, and parts of The Advent Of Panurge. The latter is one of, if not the best, songs that GG ever created. A fantastic example of their mastery with counterpoint melody. A less successful, but still highly enjoyable, example is found in the vocal lines of Knots. For as much flack as this song takes, a great many recent prog bands certainly seem to have adapated this style for their own use. The Boys in the Band shows where they would be going with a fantastic progression supplemented by some rather weaker breaks (this song would work far better in the live context). River is something of a studio experiment which features a very nice guitar solo from Gary Green, but does not succeed as well as other song on here.

In fact, I think this whole album is much better represented by their various live renditions of Excerpts From Octopus, where they link several of the songs together in a kind of medely. This is not one of my favorite GG albums, but is still quite enjoyable. I give it 3.5 stars, but don't see it as an essential album by them.

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