IN A GLASS HOUSE

IN A GLASS HOUSE was made under pressure because of the fact Phil Shulman left the group leaving the group as a quintet and also by the fact that Columbia Records dropped them at the same time due to their uncommercial sound. Luckily that meant that the band retained control of their master tapes and after not being released in North America for decades was finally remastered and available everywhere in 2004.

Luckily all the members of GENTLE GIANT were multi-instrumentalists so that didn't mean any particular sound went unrepresented although Phil was a major contributor in the horn section and although Derek Shulman picks up sax duties on a couple tracks, this album contains noticeably less horns and rocks more than any album before. The electric guitar displays some seriously heavy riffing and is the prominent feature on IN A GLASS HOUSE with the other usual suspects making their appearance such as the whacked out glockenspiel parts, organ runs, violins wending their way through medieval, classical, rock and GG-style avant-garde.

The fact that GG made yet another masterpiece that is as different from the previous albums as can be only testifies to their utter brilliance in continuing to reinvent themselves and standing tall in the face of any adversities. Their assiduousness is admirable with every detail laid out in texture, tone, tempo and tenacity. GENTLE GIANT really reaches new heights here. All that came before reaches a sublimeness despite everything leading up to this release also being brilliant albeit on a less complex level. The ability to keep a melody and mangle it with complex interludes, extremely demanding tempo shifts that change with no prior notice, instrumental parts that shouldn't work where they do and the mixing of mellow medieval segments alternating with hard rocking parts that can be folky and classical at the same time, is the reason GENTLE GIANT remains one of the most unique, talented and demanding bands of all time and despite all the complexities the melodies somehow register as pleasing to the ears all the while leaving you scratching your head wondering how they just pulled that off.

The fact is GENTLE GIANT wanted to create the absolute most original music of their day. This is a feat that many a band had in their vision but absolutely no one pulled it off with more panache and class than GG who liberally borrowed every style of music known to humankind and deftly assembled all the parts into a musical vision that was so far ahead of its time that its taken the rest of the world four decades to catch up to. Although i absolutely love every GG that preceded IAGH, it is on this release i feel that they reached the pinnacle of their progressive genre fusion powers where every note and every single phrasing is sedulously matched in an impressive piece of perfection. Mega Classic!