BGO's 2013 double-disc set pairs two 1972 albums from
Gentle Giant: their third album
Three Friends and its successor,
Octopus.
Gentle Giant took the reigns of their own production on
Three Friends, resulting in a slightly harder sound; "Peel the Paint" wails like hard rock while "Working All Day" works a nice slow grind.
Octopus is much more characteristic of
Gentle Giant: its heavier tracks feel as dense as jazz and its open-ended tunes feel teasingly complex. By definition,
Gentle Giant did not make music intended to be sampled, but this two-fer isn't a bad way to hear the group at both its most direct and most elliptical. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
