Gentle Giant's second album does everything you would expect the second album from an excellent band to do. It takes whatever made the debut album great and goes a bit further with it, it refines some of the "rough edges" which are excusable on a debut album but unacceptable later, and it shows a marked increase in the quality of both writing and playing.
Kerry Minnear's classical training and flair for composition and arrangement really shine here. Already one of the main writers, he quickly assumed the role of primary arranger as well. His ability to blend Jazz, R&B, Medieval, Country, Baroque, and possibly a few other genres into something recognizable as Rock is unmatched. Whereas the first album blended many styles but stayed pretty much in the R&B area, things are definitely more diverse here.
As with the first album,
Acquiring the Taste was produced by Tony Visconti, later known for his work with David Bowie, The Moody Blues, Wings, and many others. He does a remarkable job of reining in Gentle Giant's seeming obsession with playing as many instruments and as many styles as possible, and producing something that, for all of its weirdness and outrageousness, is still (relatively) accessible. In other words, this is another classic prog rock album.
Acquiring the Taste (1971)Gary Green: 6-string Electric Guitar, 12-string Electric Guitar, Mandolin, Bass, Donkey's Jawbone, Cat Calls, Voice
Kerry Minnear: Minimoog, Piano, Hammond Organ, Mellotron, Harpsichord, Electric Piano, Celeste, Clavichord, Xylophone, Vibraphone, Tympani, Cello, Maracas, Tambourine, Vocals
Derek Shulman: Alto Saxophone, Clavichord, Cowbell, Vocals
Phil Shulman: Clarinet, Trumpet, Alto & Tenor Saxophone, Piano, Claves, Maracas, Vocals
Ray Shulman: Bass, Violin, Viola, Electric Violin, Spanish Guitar, 12-string Guitars, Tambourine, Skulls, Organ Bass Pedals, Vocals
Martin Smith: Drums, Tambourine, Gong, Side Drum
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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)5 Wreck (4:39)6 The Moon is Down (4:49)7 Black Cat (3:54)8 Plain Truth (7:36)Paul Cosh: Trumpet (track 3), Organ (track 3)
Tony Visconti: Descant Recorders (track 5), Treble Recorder (tracks 3, 5), Tenor Recorder (track 5), Bass Drum (track 7), Triangle (track 7)
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Pantagruel's Nativity opens the album with a mini-epic based on characters from the
Gargantua and Pantagruel books by French author François Rabelais. In some ways, Pantagruel, son of Gargantua,
is "the gentle giant", something like a title character for the band. He would return in other tracks on later albums. The track itself wastes no time in weaving electronic keyboards and electric guitars with flutes, trumpet, saxophones, and tuned percussion. You wanted more instrumental insanity from Gentle Giant? You got it. Still, this is somehow a relatively mellow tune.
Acquiring the Taste is Gentle Giant's most introspective, impressionistic album, sometimes downright dark, and
Edge of Twilight continues the theme. Ray Shulman provides the acoustic guitar, and there is no electric guitar. In fact, the album has individual track credits and includes the amusing "Gary Green – Didn't play on this one."
The House, the Street, the Room Gary gets his chance cut loose here, though we are first treated to an incredible break featuring horns, flutes, keyboards, pretty much everything. I know I'm starting to repeat myself, but really, that was "business as usual" for early Gentle Giant. Another spooky, creepy tune.
Acquiring the Taste is an instrumental composed, arranged, and performed by keyboardist Kerry Minnear. It is a quartet in the Baroque style, with a modern, demented twist, performed on Moog synthesizers. Some of that intentional dissonance from the first album is back. Not a bad track by any means, but has something of an experimental feel (which admittedly it was) or maybe something like a compositional exercise.
Wreck divides many Gentle Giant fans. On this album, it's the closest thing to a "regular" song. Pretty standard instrumentation (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, with a little violin thrown in for flavor), and the song itself is in a basic A-A-B-A structure. It's about a shipwreck, with the crew's chant of "Hey-yey-yey hold on!" serving as a refrain. Derek's boistrous shout-singing is contrasted to Kerry's quiet tenor during the break, singing sweetly about how everyone dies and their loved ones will never see them again. I did mention that this album could get rather dark.
The Moon is Down features Phil and Derek on saxophones in a jazzy, noirish tune. Again, a great buildup, moody lyrics, and a challenging instrumental break are all packed into a five-minute song that somehow seems longer.
Black Cat features Phil Shuman on lead vocals, and I was surprised to learn that because I always thought it was Kerry Minnear. This is another Minnear showpiece, with a string quartet (Ray and Kerry multitracked) woven with vibes and sparse percussion. Phil's voice is somewhere between Derek's and Kerry's, probably closer to Kerry's with the lightness, but with some of the depth and strength normally associated with Derek.
Plain Truth is the rocker to close out the album, much as "Why Not?" closed out the first album. It's another more-or-less straight-on rocker, except that it's also a showcase for Ray Shulman's electric violin madness, with a couple of extended breaks, just to keep you on your toes. His improvisational style is... an acquired taste. But this is Gentle Giant. Each of these guys gets their time to show us what they've got, and this is Ray's.
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The full quote, referenced earlier in this thread, is from the liner notes for this, their second album:
"It is our goal to expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of being very unpopular. We have recorded each composition with the one thought - that it should be unique, adventurous and fascinating. It has taken every shred of our combined musical and technical knowledge to achieve this. From the outset we have abandoned all preconceived thoughts of blatant commercialism. Instead we hope to give you something far more substantial and fulfilling. All you need to do is sit back, and acquire the taste."At only 39:26, this was Gentle Giant's longest album. But that was average for the time and Gentle Giant, unlike most other prog bands, was always about "quality over quantity". As has been pointed out upthread already, they don't have any side-long epics. Most of their songs don't break the five- or six-minute mark. Gentle Giant instead seemed to focus on packing as much as possible into "normal-length" songs. This is not to say that they wouldn't extend a section for effect, as with the electric violin solos in "Plain Truth". But while with other prog bands, you sometimes think that they could've shortened up a section here or there, Gentle Giant pushed things in a different direction, combining as many different influences and instruments as possible.
The cover. Ugh. In 2005, it made Pitchfork Media's list of "The Worst Record Covers of All Time" and I can see why. I think it's supposed to look like... well, you can see what it's supposed to look like, but as with the first album, the original gatefold opened vertically, and you can see that what we're actually "acquiring the taste" for is a peach or some other tasty fruit. Okay.