Gentle Giant / Acquiring The Taste

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Gentle Giant's second album, <i>Acquiring the Taste</i>, is where they really start showing off their eclectic gifts; the band up their game several levels here. Most members of Gentle Giant already played a multitude of instruments, but there are even more additions to the arsenal this time around, from celeste, harpsichord, viola, and clarinet to a donkey's jawbone—the better to realize their expanded ambitions. The compositions are exponentially more intricate, the parts more challenging, and the eclecticism amped up to an equal degree. The art-song feel of "Edge of Twilight" gives way to a mini percussion concerto featuring tympani and xylophone. The blistering rock riffs of "The House, the Street, the Room" are interrupted by a sort of modernist fugue. The title track is a baroque synthesizer interlude leading to the heavy-rock sea chantey "The Wreck," which includes an acoustic Renaissance interlude.

via Apple Music