THE MISSING PIECE

The Missing Piece is the ninth album from Gentle Giant and it´s a big change from their trademark progressive rock style. The Missing Piece is a much more straightforward rock album compared to the previous eight very progressive rock albums from Gentle Giant. Some people believe that The Missing Piece is a commercial and an artistical sell out, but I must admit that I enjoy most of the songs on The Missing piece and it might even be a bit more exciting to me than the previous album Interview.

There are two masterpiece songs on The Missing Piece IMO. The first song Two Weeks In Spain and the last song For Nobody which both rank among my alltime favorite Gentle Giant songs. The commercial sounding ballad I'm Turning Around is also pretty good in my ears and so is Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It, Who Do You Think You Are? And Winning. As Old As You're Young is a bit special as it sounds as if it could have been on one of the previous albums. It´s a very enjoyable song. Memories Of Old Days is a very beautiful song in my ears even though it also has a commercial touch.

The musicianship is outstanding as always when we´re talking Gentle Giant, but the elaborate instrumental ideas has been cut down a bit on The Missing Piece and many of the songs employ a more normal rock instrumentation than what we´re used to from Gentle Giant.

The production is great and powerful.

The Missing Piece is a good album IMO, and not quite the disappointment I remembered it to be. If I should chose between The Missing Piece and it´s predessessor Interview I think I would chose The Missing Piece. The Missing Piece might not be as artisticly valid as Interview but it´s catchy and memorable. The prog elements are not as obvious as earlier but Gentle Giant is still a progressive rock band on The Missing Piece. The downfall has started though and would be complete with the next album Giant for a Day. The Missing Piece does deserve more than an average rating IMO so a small 4 star rating is probably in order.