Before I dig into TP&TG a quick reminder that these reviews will not be in a chronological timeline but rather in the order (to the best of my recollection) of which I heard them. There will be some doubt as to this order in future albums but up until the live album (two future reviews from this) there is no question in this regard. This is mainly due to the fact that I'm in the US and three albums were not released stateside until after 1976, including a 1973 album released in Europe but not in my country. Accordingly, the next album that I heard was 1974's The Power And The Glory.
Most fan polls register either Octopus or TP&TG as Giants best. I place it as #2 behind Three Friends (I appear to be all alone in this). TP&TG is one magnificent album, virtually every Giant fan will agree to this.
The opening song is "Proclamation"
Opening with Minnear's keys, when Derek Shulman begins the first verse, it seems somewhat off beat with what Kerry is playing. It isn't of course, no one in the prog era threw off the time sigs quite like Giant. Once Ray Shulman's bass and John Weathers drums kick in, everything works like clockwork. Then after an instrumental bridge (which was IMO the main thing keeping Octopus out of the top tier Giant for me), they pick up the tempo, then outro into one of the quirkiest (and IMO best) songs in the entire Giant catalog (and that's saying something), "So Sincere"
The track opens with bowed instruments, some playing bowed and some playing pizzicato. This section seems almost impossibly free time, and when the vocals enter this effect only increases. But, after all, this is Gentle Giant, once Weathers enters the song everything fits perfectly. This would become a centerpiece of the future tours, to be reviewed soon.
The next track is the ballad "Aspirations", one of the best pure ballads (I would put "Schooldays" from Three Friends atop that list but I'm not 100% sure I'd call it a ballad), a much MUCH better such ballad IMO than "Think Of Me With Kindness" from Octopus. Just flipping beautiful, but still containing the signature Giant counterpoint and instrumental interplay.
Next comes "Playing The Game" with some incredible round interplay between all the instrumentation. Nobody but Giant, baby. The song appears to be closing at the three minute mark, but they break into a fairly extended bridge section, that effortlessly glides into the last verse and outro. These bridge sections were somewhat of a downfall on Octopus but they're outstanding here.
This ended side one of the vinyl record. Side two began with the frantic "Cogs In Cogs". No one, NO ONE else in rock in the 70's could pull off these kinds of crazy arrangements. Another fantastic bridge section here
Then comes the wonderful "No God's A Man" with incredible roundplay in the voices. I also love Ray Shulman's basswork in the final choruses.
The wild instrumental interplay just keeps coming in "The Face"
This great album closes with "Valedictory", a reprise of "Proclamation". Why wasn't this track named "Proclimation (Reprise)"? Because this is Gentle Giant, that'd be too easy
They would next release an album that finally got some VERY moderate radioplay on the AOR stations (at least in Portland), but as usual Giant remained wildly unpopular with most of the Prog fans (BTW the term Prog is relatively recent, we didn't widely use that term in the 1970's), Free Hand will be next