Gentle Giant’s fourth album on 180-gram LP — reissued for the first time in decades!
Featuring original gatefold jacket and artwork, plus lyrics!
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of their debut album, prog rock icons Gentle Giant are releasing their first four albums — Gentle Giant, Acquiring Taste, Three Friends and Octopus — as vinyl special editions. Gentle Giant’s self-tiled debut was produced by Tony Visconti and released in October 1970. Visconti also produced the follow-up, Acquiring The Taste, the following year.
Three Friends — produced by the band — was released in 1972, and was followed the same year by the classic Octopus. This was the last album on which founding member Phil Shulman played, and for many fans it is one of their best works.
“Returning to Gentle Giant’s fourth album after any kind of lengthy absence, it’s astonishing just how little Octopus has dated. Often written off at the time as a pale reflection of the truly gargantuan steps being taken by the likes of Jethro Tull and Barclay James Harvest, the band’s closest relatives in the tangled skein of period prog, Gentle Giant often seemed more notable for its album art than its music. Octopus, however, marries the two seamlessly, with the cover speaking for itself, of course. And the mood continues within, the deliciously convoluted opening ‘The Advent of Panurge’ itself riding waves of sonic tentacles as Gary Green’s guitar shrieks short but so effective bursts around the thundering bass and, occasionally, churchy organ. Against the pulsating volume of the album’s heavier tracks, the band’s excursions into less excitable territory are never less than captivating.” — AllMusic
