Gentle Giant - Octopus

We got a taste of Winter here in Iowaland last week, and this might be the final pleasant weekend before it takes up long-term residence. So, let's listen to something delightfully pleasant. Steven Stark mentioned a Gentle Giant song on his tiktok, so let's listen to Octopus, widely regarded as one of their best. 

Gentle Giant had an active career from 1970 to 1980, but couldn't quite gain mainstream popularity. It's mostly because they write incredibly complex and lushly experimental compositions, merging Medieval/Renaissance vocal counterpoint with soaring Rock melodies, Avant Jazz, and Modern orchestral expressionism. The jukebox with this in it is not surprisingly devoid of dimes. Shame, these guys are fantastic. 

The album, in spite of concept albums being immediately panned as pretentious garbage at the time, was written from the concept of having a song about each band member. The end result is 8 musical compositions drawing heavily from literature and philosophy, and titled accordingly (each song is a metaphorical leg of the octopus that is this band/album). 

As far as the music goes, i don't have much to say because it's completely lovely. We could take a deep dive into structural/stylistic/theoretical topics about the compositions themselves, but people tend to punch me in the face when i do that for no good reason, so i like to just stick with the general "brain feel happy" phenomenological description. 

At the end of the day, or in this case the beginning of the day, this is a Rock Band writing contemporary orchestral pieces with any insteuments they can find/play, and it's fantastic. I don't find this "challenging" the way mainstream apologists often dismiss it, i find this lovely and exciting because i'm capable of following long-range musical thoughts and picking apart complex textures. I like Pop songs too, but a bowl of candy does not make for much of a dinner party. Octopus is an 8-course banquet. I don't mean a pretentious display of gastronomic deconstruction or $12,000 sushi, i mean a proper Viking smorgasbord in the long hall with jugglers and minstrels strolling amongst the revelers. 

No, i promise, it doesn't taste like chicken, but Octopus (musically speaking) is delicious. Now roll your bloated, over-indulged body outside and enjoy this beautiful sunshiny day while you still can. Winter, as they say, is coming. 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mVvBa9lfwB1HDZvaqWuNms6HqI05BNZ1Y

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