Gentle Giant was never a band to follow the rules musically. Even their debut album threw enough musical curveballs at listeners to set them apart from others in the progressive rock field.
But with their second album Acquiring The Taste, Derek Shulman and crew suggested that they took the rules, burned them for kindling, then smoked the ashes. Admittedly, they did warn listeners in the liner notes that this was going to be a bumpy ride, but they assured people it would be worth it if they had the patience to sit through 40 minutes of atonal droning and chords that didn’t resolve. At least, this is what the listener is prepared to experience the moment the needle touched down on the record.
Admittedly, the whole album is not that experimental. There are plenty of moments throughout these eight songs that harken back to Gentle Giant’s debut effort. Tracks like “Wreck” and “The House, The Street, The Room” continue to show why Gentle Giant deserved to be better recognized in the onslaught of prog-rock that occurred in the ’70s.
But there certainly are some sonic experiments contained within this album. “Edge Of Twilight” is very reminiscent of certain pseudo-jazz pieces that Frank Zappa would come up with later in his career. Maybe that’s what helped get me through this one; there was some familiarity with the style. But for someone listening in 1971? One can visualize the collective scratching of heads. Similarly, the instrumental title track seems to be a melange of chords that don’t quite know what they’re supposed to do or where they should go.
But even within some of the sonic weirdness, the heart of the band continued to beat—and even though they supposedly eschewed commercialism with these songs, tracks like “The Moon Is Down” have their moments, even if it takes some time to get to them. (Not like Gentle Giant was a particularly commercial band at this stage in their career anyway.)
In the end, Acquiring The Taste does take some musical chances, and the listener does have to exercise some patience to get through those moments. But the heart of Gentle Giant still was beating strongly underneath these musical detours, and while it’s not as strong of an effort as their debut, it has plenty to celebrate therein. And, one has to admit, the band was correct with their statement that it would take patience and open-mindedness with the listener. It’s a slight step down from their first disc, but not a severe one.
