IN A GLASS HOUSE

Technically I should be giving this album five stars -- I can't really pinpoint anything as "bad". However, I don't feel like this is a five star album, more of a 4.5 album. This album, made by the highly experimental and crazy Gentle Giant, is one of my favorites that I've heard of theirs. It's got good songwriting, great...and I mean GREAT melodies, and uses some isntruments and sounds you odn't hear too often. So, I probably should be head-over-heels in love with this album.

But I'm not, not enough to give it five stars. Sure, everything seems right, but it's prog. Huh, you say? I mean just that...it's simply prog, nothing more and nothing less. It doesn't do anything daring, doesn't try anything too new, no real soul in it, no passion of any sort, no experimental stuff, no crazy singing...gawd, nothing. It's just prog. There's nothing wrong with just prog -- especially when it's done this well. A wide array of sounds of instruments and tight composing, it's good stuff that keeps me coming back to this album. BUT, there's nothing that screams, "This band put everything they had in them into this album", or "This is something different". It doesn't quite sound generic, in fact it doesn't sound generic at all. Once again, it's just prog. Good prog at that, but there is abslutely nothing that distinguishes it from the huge amounts of other symphonic prog bands out there.

The title track is a wonderful song with pretty nice violin and all around nice voice work and once again great melodies. It sorta gets a little boring, but it's good, I do like this track a lot. I feel the same way about Experience, which gets a little rougher in the middle in its' sound, but is still great. Way of Life starts with an awesome bass part and someone shouting GO! The vocals seem kinda dissonant when they coem in, but it works. This song also reverts into the same mode as Experience and the title track -- greatsong ,some amazing moments, but nothing you look at and realize that this band is something special. They're very good, but nothign different. An Inmates Lullaby and A Reunion are pretty worthless, but oh well. The Runaway is the same as the other three great tracks on this album, very good but nothing new.

See, I really like Gentle Giant and plan on buying much of their discography, but they will never be one of my favorites, just as this album will never be one of my favorites. It's good prog, but that's ALL it is: good prog. Nothing else. This isn't bad, but it certainly doesn't make me ecstatic and doesn't make me flip out and give it five stars.

Disclaimer: I really do like this album, honest -- but it's just that missing extra element that keeps me from giving it five stars or proclaiming Gentle Giant as great.