Re: Gentle Giant - Octopus (1972)

by Nightjar Sun May 10, 2020 7:46 pm

That was 80% awful.

15% forgettable.

5% quite good.

I have a couple of their later albums on my iTunes and I seem to recall them being better.

Roger Dean's got a lot to answer for. Sly

by Guest Sun May 10, 2020 9:26 pm

I just sneaked in a 4. It kept to the point, as I suspect on repeated listenings the mess of the song structures will disappear, and you'll be left with a well played folky Prog, where they actually were trying to progress music forward. Or something.

I'll never listen to this album again. And I forgot to tick the cancel the vote box and it's too late now.

Sleep

by Nightjar Sun May 10, 2020 9:39 pm

On reflection, I was being unfair perhaps.

In regards my facetious % markings above.

Not my ultimate mark however.

That was almost generous.

It was fitfully entertaining, which, however made it all the more annoying to listen to.

Lots of very adept musicianship, but no heart or soul.

Also, no concept.

For good or ill Prog bands usually had some kind of concept underpinning the album that mitigated the dreary technical brilliance.

Not so in this case it seems.

A catastrophic mistake. sad yes