THE MISSING PIECE

The result of Gentle Giant's attempt to create something with more commercial appeal while also retaining its prog audience comes off rather half-hearted and insecure. The bouncy, upbeat "Two Weeks In Spain" and the melancholic "Memories Of Old Days" (which has a very soothing synth tone and a great vocal delivery by Derek Shulman) are the only two tracks where these two aims are met somewhat successfully; the rest of the album ranges from forgettable (like the folkish "As Old As You're Young", or "I'm Turning Around", a pathetic attempt at a power pop anthem) to embarrassing: did the world really need to hear this band debase itself with idiotic lounge songs like "Who Do You Think You Are" or "Mountain Time"? And "For Nobody" was probably intended to be an epic closing number for both the old and the new audience but just ends up as a totally generic "rocker" with its only distinguishing feature being some weird organs and some other traces of the traditional Gentle Giant instrumentation that would probably turn off mainstream pop fans. Just what were they even trying to do here?