Gentle Giant’s second studio album, Acquiring the Taste, presents a band that has already fully matured. Gone is the slight fumbling of their first eponymous album (1970) , in favour of a confident, skilful band and a masterfully polished album.
With Acquiring the Taste, Royal Academy Of Music educated keyboardist Kerry Minnear was given more space as a composer and arranger. This is reflected in more complex songs on the album, but also in smoother transitions from one idea to another. The influences of the Renaissance music that Minnear loves can also be heard at several points on the album. Phil Shulman, the band’s senior and unofficial leader and vocalist/percussionist, encouraged Minnear to make more and more complex and intricate music. Herein lay the paradox of the three Shulman brothers in the band: they wanted to succeed with their music and make some real money, but at the same time they knew they couldn’t do it with the kind of music they really wanted to make.
As Gentle Giant’s music became more sophisticated, the lyrics followed suit. The songs on the album are full of references and influences from high culture literature. ”Plain Truth” features the nihilism of Albert Camus, ”The Wreck” is inspired by Lord Byron’s ”Don Juan” and the lyrics of ”Pantagruel’s Nativity” are directly indebted to the 16th century satires of Francois Rabeleis, whose protagonists were giants. Combining these literary influences with the band’s complex music, it’s no wonder that Gentle Giant’s reputation was very anti-rock and intellectual. So, for many rock fans, Gentle Giant sounded like a rather overwhelming concept even before they had heard a single note of the band’s music. Acquired taste indeed!
Acquiring the Taste is full of delicious musical moments, just to mention a few in this article.
One of the highlights is ”Pantagruel’s Nativity”, which starts with a whimsical synthesizer sound and features gorgeous polyphonic vocal harmonies that became a sort of Gentle Giant trademark. The song also features some nice vibraphone playing from Minnear and moves into Gary Green’s biting electric guitar. Shulman’s trumpet sounds triumphantly fanfare-like towards the end. The six-minute ’Pantagruel’s Nativity’, composed by Minnear, is a cornucopia of ideas and somehow miraculously the numerous different sections manage to form a coherent whole.
The very un-rocky ”Edge of Twilight” takes the music to the limits of tonality and includes a great drum part which Minnear cleverly embellishes with a xylophone.
The third track ”The House, the Street, the Room” brings in a slightly more aggressive sound, but doesn’t slacken on the complexity: the song starts with a very intricate riff that someone has calculated contains as many as 26 notes.
”Black Cat” is also one of the highlights of the album, sneaking forward in 7/8 time. The softly dancing vibraphone creates a delightful, and very unrocky, atmosphere and the chamber music-like interlude with its playful use of stereo imagery is hugely entertaining.
Only the aggressive rock song ”Plain Truth”, which closes the album, doesn’t seem to fit into the whole in all its straightforwardness. At least the numerous changes in tempo add rhythmic interest to the song. Plain Truth” is by no means a bad song, but it is undoubtedly the least interesting of the bunch. In fact, the song is leftover from the sessions on the first album.
Producer Tony Visconti also did a good job on the album. Acquiring the Taste sounds really good. The stereo image has been used creatively, but without being too gimmicky. The sounds in general are crisply distinctive, but still warm.
On Acquiring the Taste Gentle Giant achieved the perfect combination of boisterous rocking, detailed complexity and extremely rich arrangements (dozens of different instruments can be heard on the album). And the band does all this while managing to sound completely natural and even warm. With Acquiring the Taste, Gentle Giant sound extremely skilful (and at times almost annoyingly clever!), but still human. This humanity and warmth somewhat faded over the years, and I personally consider Acquiring the Taste to be the band’s most successful album, alongside Octopus (1972).
Unfortunately, the artistic success of the album was not reflected in the band’s popularity and Gentle Giant continued to play gigs, mostly in the unappreciated role of a warm-up band. If the band was lucky, the main band was Jethro Tull, whose fans were also open to Gentle Giant. On bad days, the star of the night might have been Black Sabbath, whose drunken fans mostly hurled insults in the face of the opening band’s sophisticated music.
Best songs: ”Pantagruel’s Nativity”, ”Edge Of Twilight”, ”Black Cat”
Rating: *****
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Kappaleet:
Side A
1. ”Pantagruel’s Nativity” 6:53
2. ”Edge of Twilight” 3:51
3. ”The House, the Street, the Room” 6:05
4. ”Acquiring the Taste” 1:39
Side B
1. ”Wreck” Derek Shulman 4:39
2. ”The Moon Is Down” 4:49
3. ”Black Cat” 3:54
4. ”Plain Truth” 7:36
Band:
Derek Shulman: vocals, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, piano chord, cowbell Gary Green: 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, bass, tambourine, donkey jaw Kerry Minnear: MiniMoog, Hammond organ, piano, clavinet, electric piano, Thomas Organ, piano chord, Mellotron, RMI 368 Electra-Piano and harpsichord, celesta, bell marimba, vibraphone, timpani, cello, maracas, vocals Ray Shulman: bass, acoustic guitar, violin, electric violin, tambourine, backing vocals, skulls, organ bass pedals Phil Shulman: clarinet, trumpet, alto and tenor saxophones, piano, rhythm chimes, maracas, vocals Martin Smith: drums, tambourine, gong
Producer: Tony Visconti
Lable: Vertigo
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