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Old 06-08-2014, 12:34 PM   #19 (permalink)
Paul Smeenus
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Default In A Glass House (1973)

When I first heard the amazing live album "Playing The Fool", side three opened with Derek Shulman proclaiming "This album was called...In A Glass...House!" followed by the sound of glass breaking, then more and more until it became a clattering rhythm. I was stunned, what? There's a Giant album I haven't heard? The quest was on to find this album, as what was playing on that third side of the live album was outstanding.




So the album was found in the import bins (their stateside label at the time, Columbia Records, rejected IAGH on grounds that they felt it was not commercially viable, which was why I never heard of it until PtF came out years later) and it became one of my absolute favorites. In fact, mainly on the strength of worldwide sales but also US import sales plus domestic sales once it was finally pressed stateside in 1978, IAGH remains the top selling Giant album, even exceeding Free Hand (although the announced release of the Steven Wilson remix of TP&TG may have an impact on this).

Another thing I didn't know was that this was the first album after the departure of Phil Shulman, not TP&TG as I'd previously thought. I never made a big deal out of this because, well, they didn't seem to miss him, at least from my perspective. They sounded like the magnificent Giant with or without him. However, for that reason, many members of Giant were not pleased with IAGH at first.

"The Runaway" opens the album as it did side three of PtF




Love this, every minute of it, in particular the recorder bridge

Then, one of the great, most ambitious tracks in the entire Giant catalog, although it doesn't make that apparent on an initial listen, "An Inmate's Lullaby". What makes this track unique in all the Giant collection is that there are ONLY melodic percussive instruments. No bass, no guitar, no violin, no woodwind, but interestingly enough no trap drum either. Well, there is a bit of a reprise of the final notes of"The Runaway", but about eight seconds in the main body of the song starts. The only drum per se are kettle drums, used melodically.

I'm actually going to post two YouTube's of this amazing piece, first the standard music-over-album-cover tube here




But also this version, which really captures the theme of this song but does so in an extremely disturbing way. Graphic images in this fan vid

Spoiler for extremely disturbing graphic early 20th century asylum images:



"Way of Life" picks up the pace next, and then some. This track closes side one with an eerie extended organ outro




Side two opens with "Experience", the other song I'd already heard from the live album. Minnear's keys begin the piece, but midpoint this becomes a rocker, kicking it up in an incredible transition from their trademark medieval hybrid to hard driving guitar rock




Next comes the album's quiet moment, and a wonderful one at that, "A Reunion". Any other band would've hired a string section to pull this off, only Giant could do it themselves




The title track closes this great album, what can I say about this track that I haven't been saying all through this thread, it is prog perfection




At this point in 1973 they had a few years of creative brilliance left in them. My next review will be the last one, then sadly I'll have to discuss how they went horribly wrong. But thankfully I have one great effort left to review, Interview is next
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Gentle Giant Catalog Review

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