Customer Reviews

POWER & THE GLORY

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

During the seventies, the European continent and the whole world produced tons of band that we all used to call their music as "progressive rock" and GG is that one call now and forever "unforgetable". Their music was a genuine mix of "I-do-not-know-how-to-explain". They were more than perfect, more than extravagant, more than superb along with many others bands of that period. This "The Power And The Glory" and also "Acquiring The Taste", "In A Glass House", "Gentle Giant" and "Free Hand" are the truest and most genuine gems of the power and the glory of progressive rock music of all times. A million stars rate.

If you held a gun to my head and asked me my favorite Giant album, I'd have to go with The Power and the Glory. Proclamation was the first GG song I ever heard -- late one night on WKSU (Kent State) in Ohio. I bought the album the next day, and I can honestly say my life has never been the same. There's other good reviews here, so I'll just get to the point: If you have more than a passing interest in art rock, buy this record.

From the opening Fender Rhodes piano riff, you know you're in a new world. Gentle Giant created a collage of sparkling, precise riffs, nods to Renaissance vocal music, thundering guitar moments, and folk fiddle. This album showcased them as one of the most well-integrated, tightest units in pop music history. No other art rock band of the 70's comes close.

...got their fascination for wierd time signatures and contrapuntal vocal arrangements. Echolyn only lasted one album because they were trying to be TOO similar. There's only one real thing--their name was Gentle Giant.

Wow. You will want to listen to this several times before you truly appreciate it. At first it is difficult listening. After repeated listenings it becomes recognized as the masterpiece it is.

This is a concept album, released right after the Watergate scandal in 1974. The lyrics revolve around politics, power, and the abuse of power, and make a powerful statement against authoritarianism. While Gentle Giant denies that it was specifically about Watergate, it must have touched a timely nerve anyway among American audiences because this is the album that broke Gentle Giant in the States, after their previous albums gained them only a cult following. Sadly, after this album they only released two more progressive rock masterpieces before they floundered into commercial FM-friendly music, New Wave, and mellow pop-rock (and not coincidentally lost their audience).

The first track, "Proclamation", is a chilling piece about the rise of a "benevolent" dictator to power, promising to solve the country's problems. The piano line and the sound effects (of a large crowd shouting "hail!") as well as the lyrics, evoke images of a Hitler or a Mussolini masterfully manipulating a crowd with pageantry and rousing speeches. The second track, "So Sincere", is a complex masterpiece of minimalism. It suggests the work of some modern classical composers - arhythmical, non-melodic, and challenging. After repeated listens it becomes rewarding listening. The third track, "Aspirations", shifts gears into a mellow, keyboard-based ballad that is nonetheless emotionally powerful to listen to. "Playing the Game" is a rocker that incorporates Oriental musical influences as well. The mix works wonderfully; this may be the best track on the entire album. "Cogs in Cogs" is another rocker, successfully using rock instruments to evoke images of machinery as a metaphor for a totalitarian society. While not as obvious as today's industrial music based on totalitarian conceptual themes (e.g. Laibach), in the context of the 70's this song works as intended. The next two tracks, "No Gods a Man" and "The Face", depict cracks beginning to appear in the totalitarian regime, while the final track, "Valedictory", is musically a repeat of the opening track but with the lyrics about the dictator trying desparately to hold onto power even as it crumbles around him.

Even Gentle Giant outdid themselves here. This is one of the best albums in the entire rock era.