I disagree with you on this one Comus. While it's a very experimental album it's also, I think, one of their most accessible and one of the first abums I'd recommend to those who want to get into the band. There's still some blues that pops up in Experience and the title track. But thankfully they started putting less emphasis on it and are beginning to explore their own sound more fully.
The lyrical subjects are a lot darker and more serious than their other work. An Inmates Lullaby for example is about a mental patient, but it's a very beautiful song, and it's an odd one because it's all percussion instruments like vibraphone and xylophone.
But the music itself on the album is very upbeat sounding. There's more of a bubbly folk sound on this record than the rest of their work. This is the only GG album where Green plays the mandolin, so that gives it a very unique flavor when compared to the other albums.
I do miss Phil very much, his brass instruments gave the first four GG albums a lot of their bombastic power, though his absence allowed the band to evolve once more.
So Piss, if you like Octopus enough to check out another album, make sure In A Glass House is the first.
Boobs' picks: The Runaway, Way of Life, Experience, In A Glass House.
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