| | Gentle Giant CD Gentle Giant Discography of CDs
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Astonishingly daring debut album, not as focused or overpowering as King Crimson's first but still crashing down barriers and steamrolling expectations. The mix of medieval harmonies and electric rock got stronger on subsequent albums, but the music here is still pretty jarring. Kerry Minnear was probably the only prog rock keyboard player of the era who allowed his synthesizers to sound like themselves and not mimic orchestras; Gary Green's guitars are alternately loud and brittle or soft and lyrical, and always surprising; and the presence of saxes and trumpets (courtesy of Phil Shulman) was unusual in any rock band of the era -- all of which explains how Gentle Giant managed to attract a cult following but hadn't a prayer of moving up from that level of recognition. "Funny Ways" was the softest prog rock song this side of Crimson's "I Talk to the Wind," but a lot of the rest is pretty intense in volume and tempo changes. "Nothing at All" by itself is worth the price of purchase. ~ Bruce Eder
Debut album originally released in 1970. Universal. 2001.Q (5/97, p.138) - 2 Stars (out of 5) - "...sounds rather tentative now and dresses occasionally in progressive rock hand-me-downs..." Gentle Giant Music | List Price | $15.99 (You save $3.20) | | Category | Rock Albums, Rock/Pop CDs, Progressive, Art Rock | | Label | Mercury | | Orig Year | 1970 | | All Time Sales Rank |  14329  | | CD Universe Part number | 1056839 | | Catalog number | 661555 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Feb 20, 2007 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Tony Visconti | | Engineer | Roy Baker | | Recording Time | 36 minutes |
Gentle Giant Music Review Average Rating: (4 out of 5 stars)   Nice debut
Already a mature stuff,a lot of brass, containing some of Octopus feel.
Submitted by povilas (Vilnius, Lithuania)
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 Great CD
This is one of the best albums of the seventies
Submitted by Joaquin joavilher (Valencia Spain)
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the best
This is the best of Gentle Giant. Highly recommended.
Submitted by sateldish (richmond va)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No Nice Debut!
Have many great songs, but also some bad. Recommended to GG fans.
Submitted by xxx-9 (Norway)
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Purchase Gentle Giant CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Gentle Giant Acquiring The Taste CD (1971)
Gentle Giant
 $8.15  
| | Yes Album CD (1971) Bonus Track; Remastered
Gentle Giant
$7.25 
With THE YES ALBUM, Yes began an important new chapter in its career and defined much of what the next decade would bring. They had left behind not only their original guitarist, Peter Banks, but also the covers of 1960s tunes by the likes of the Byrds and the Beatles. The arrival of the more hard-edged Steve Howe signaled the group's ascent into full-blown progressive-rock mode, a style whose parameters Yes helped craft with this recording. Though Rick Wakeman and his classical-influenced arsenal of keyboards had not yet come aboard, Tony Kaye's roiling Hammond organ and Chris Squire's busy bass lines perfectly interacted with Howe's idiosyncratic playing to create a uniquely fugue-like sound, as Bill Bruford's polyrhythms and Jon Anderson's angelic voice simultaneously kept things on a more abstract and ethereal plane than almost anything that had been labeled "rock" up to that point. "Starship Trooper" and "Yours Is No Disgrace" would become hallmarks of prog rock and launch a thousand pale imitations by third-string art-rockers for decades to come.
With THE YES ALBUM, Yes began an important new chapter in their career and defined much of what the next decade would bring. They had left behind not only their original guitarist, Peter Banks, but also the covers of 1960s tunes by the likes of the Byrds and the Beatles. ...
| | Gentle Giant In A Glass House CD (1973) Anniversary Edition; 35th Anniversary Edition
Gentle Giant
$12.89
Gentle Giant was reduced to a quintet on In a Glass House with the departure of elder brother Phil Shulman, but its sound is unchanged, and the group may actually be tighter without the presence of his saxophones. The time signatures are still really strange, and the tempo changes are sometimes jarring, as is the wide range of dynamics, but this is also one of the group's most pleasing records -- they rock out in various places, and elsewhere perform all kinds of little experiments with percussion instruments ("An Inmate's Lullaby"), or create a strange, otherworldly sort of modern medieval-style music ("Way of Life"). None of it except possibly "A Reunion" is light listening, but the challenge does yield some rewarding sounds. ~ Bruce Eder
Gentle Giant's fifth album was the maker (or breaker) of their career. Evidently of no interest to Columbia Records or to England's Vertigo label, which had issued their prior albums, it marked a break in their commercial stride; fans in England could buy it on the WAA label, but in America -- where imports were still carried mostly by specialty shops and a tiny label like WAA didn't exactly rate next to EMI, British CBS, etc. -- fans had to scramble to find it. It's arguable that the group never recovered from the lapse, because between its relative obscurity in England and the near-impossibility of finding it in America, it created ...
| | Gentle Giant Free Hand CD (1975) Anniversary Edition; 35th Anniversary Edition
Gentle Giant
$10.75
The follow-up to 1974's surprisingly well-received THE POWER & THE GLORY, Gentle Giant's FREE HAND marks the pinnacle of the British prog-rock group's international success. (Like its predecessor, it appeared on the U.S. charts.) While the band's eccentricities--complex song structures, strange vocal harmonies--are present, these tunes are framed in a slightly more pop-conscious way, as on the funky, elastic title track. The ensemble also indulges in its occasional penchant for medieval music on the jaunty "Talybont," arguably making this the archetypal Gentle Giant album.
Free Hand is perhaps Gentle Giant's most realized effort. After the excellent In a Glass House, the group further developed its Renaissance-medieval approach, producing one of the most creative and complex recordings in progressive rock history. Their vocal approach to the four-part fugue "On Reflection" was revolutionary for its time and is looked upon as one of the genre's defining moments. Despite the complexity ...
| | Gentle Giant Power And The Glory CD (1974) Anniversary Edition
Gentle Giant
$10.75 
One of Gentle Giant's most successful albums, 1974's THE POWER & THE GLORY managed to sneak briefly into the U.S. charts, an unusual feat for the lauded, but never terribly popular, U.K. prog-rock band. Though the record is considered "accessible" by Gentle Giant standards, it is filled with the group's trademark break-neck time changes and bizarre vocal harmonies (the restless "Cogs in Cogs") with occasional moments of relative quiet (the serene passages of "Aspirations") rounding out the strangely fascinating proceedings.
The Power and the Glory was the point where Gentle Giant abandoned the more obvious lyrical sound that had characterized the quieter moments of their earlier records. Starting with "Proclamation" and "So Sincere," they shoot for a combination of dissonance and virtuosity that leaves little in these two tracks resolved. "Aspirations" and "No God's a Man" mark something of a return to their earlier, more acoustic-driven and melodic sound -- both are showcases, to a greater or lesser degree, for Derek Shulman's singing and Gary Green's acoustic blues and folk playing, but they're merely quiet interludes surrounding the more intense riffing represented by "Playing the Game" and the keyboard-driven "Cogs in Cogs," with its layer upon layer of synthesizers. The remastering does ...
| | R E M Out Of Time CD (1991)
Gentle Giant
$10.09
Additional personnel includes: KRS-One, Kate Pierson (vocals); Peter Holsapple (guitar, bass); John Keane (pedal steel guitar); David Kampers, David Braitberg, David Arenz, Ellie Arenz (violin); Paul Murphy, Reid Harris (viola); Andrew Cox, Elizabeth Murphy (cello); Kidd Jordan (bass clarinet, alto, tenor & baritone saxophones); Cecil Welch (flugelhorn); Ralph Jones (acoustic bass).
Before Nirvana's NEVERMIND closed out the year with the unexpected commercial triumph of grunge rock, R.E.M.'s OUT OF TIME was the sound of alternative music circa 1991. The smash singles "Losing My Religion"--perhaps the only Top Five US single ever to feature the mandolin as its lead instrument--and "Shiny Happy People" were the commercial face of the album. Elsewhere, however, R.E.M. makes a point of moving away from expectations, ...
| | Heart Beats: Now & Forever - Timeless Wedding Songs CD (1999)
Gentle Giant
$9.29
This is part of Rhino Records' Heart Beats series.
Luther Vandross,Chicago,Anne Murray,Etta James,Air Supply
Includes liner notes by Rebecca Braverman.
Audio Remasterer: Andrew Garver.
Heart Beats: Now & Forever -- Timeless Wedding Songs contains 16 songs, primarily soft rock and adult contemporary favorites, that are often heard at wedding receptions. Although there are a few questionable inclusions ...
| | I Love Disco Diamonds, Vol. 34 CD Import
Gentle Giant
$24.45
Including David Lyme's "I Don't Wanna Lose You," Sky Creackers' cover of the Bee Gees' "You Should ...
| | Mellowdrone Box CD (2006)
Gentle Giant
$8.15
The edgy, highly textured, and propulsive energy of this band -- essentially the duo of singer, guitarist, and chief songwriter Jonathan Bates and guitarist Tony DeMatteo, but there are two other members -- completely fails to live up to its name. And that's a good and exciting thing, even the total point, for fans who like a mix of hypnotic dance beats and blistering, in-your-face rock. The two-and-a-half-minute opening track, "C'mon Try a Little Bit," is irresistible rumbling ambient new age rock bliss, building in intensity with a whispery vocal invitation to a unique musical experience. "Oh My" chimes in next, with its mix of jangly guitars, '80s-flavored dance beats, and fiery rock intensity. There's something of a mercurial vision throughout the 13 songs, as simple folksy introductions become trippy sonic fusions and later true explosions ("Four Leaf Clover"). The tracks shift effortlessly from moody space pop that bubbles with spacy textures ("Limb to Limb") to cut-like-a-knife synth pop throbbing with post-disco grooves ("Amazing"). Then there are brooding new wave hybrids with slyly ...
| | Elizabeth Mitchell You Are My Little Bird CD (2006)
Gentle Giant
$10.15
Most commercial children's music seems to be made under the assumption that youngsters are incapable of appreciating subtlety and need to be aurally slapped about the face with melodic and lyrical repetition in order to make sense of what they're hearing. Elizabeth Mitchell is an educator and musician who thankfully knows better; as the lead singer with Ida, she's been lending her lovely voice to folk-leaning indie rock for years, and in recent years she's been displaying the same intelligence and playful joie de vivre on a handful of recordings for children. You Are My Little Bird is Mitchell's third album for kids, recorded with help from Daniel Littleton (her husband and bandmate in Ida) as well as His Name Is Alive's Warren Defever, and it's a sweet, simple gem, as warm and joyous as a clear spring day. Mitchell's notion of what makes a children's song may be a bit different than those of most folks, since You Are My Little Bird includes covers of the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On" and Neil Young's "Little Wing," but there's an engaging simplicity and humanity to this music that should easily charm both kids and adults, and "Little Liza Jane," "Buckeye Jim" and "Grassy Grass Grass" are folk tunes that make perfect singalongs, regardless of the age of the audience. The arrangements on You Are My Little Bird are primarily acoustic and purposefully low-key, and they allow the melodies of these songs to shine through, and Mitchell's singing is elegant, unforced, and a thoroughly natural pleasure to behold. The quieter moments of this album are ideal for evening play or bedtime, and if you're looking for a disc that will soothe all members of the family during a long car ride, this album is just what you've been looking for. Some parents will doubtless find themselves borrowing You Are My Little Bird from their offspring to play for their own pleasure -- it's an album almost magical in its enchanting simplicity, and should be welcome listening even in homes without any little ones about. ~ Mark Deming
Audio Remasterer: Pete Reiniger.
Liner Note Authors: Hugh Musick; Happy Traum; Anthony Seeger.
Recording information: Levon Helm Studios, Woodstock, ...
| | Gerhard Klubmeier Jazz In The Charts CD (2007) (Import)
$18.29 |
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