THE SHAMING OF THE TRUE

I don't have much sympathy for concept albums about people destroyed by the evil music industry making them rich and famous and giving them everything they could have possibly dreamed about, even when they're recorded by people who had actually made it big in the industry (see: Pink Floyd's The Wall). I have even less when they're recorded by comparatively obscure artists who got passed over by the A&R men, because the taste of sour grapes generally doesn't improve the flavour.

In the case of Kevin Gilbert's Shaming of the True, what we have is a concept album about the subject matter which was completed after Gilbert's death, a death which - whilst tragic - shouldn't blind us to the album's shortcomings. Nick d'Virgilio of Spock's Beard took the lead in finishing off the album, which might explain why it has this Spock's Beard tone to it here and there, though I suspect this is also a matter of common influence - Dance of the A&R Men, the best song on the album, consists of complex, layered vocals in the sort of experiment Gentle Giant were known for back in the day.

However, away from that particularly amusing novelty track, the rest of the album seems rather bland and vapid to me, and I honestly wonder whether it doesn't get an easy ride and extra publicity simply because of the sad circumstances surrounding its release.