Tuesday, June 16, 2020

The 1980 Listening Post - Gentle Giant - Civilian

Gentle Giant - Civilian

#94
March 3 1980
Gentle Giant
Civilian
Genre: Rock
3.5 out of 5

Highlights:
Number One
Underground

I really really hated the first Gentle Giant record I heard. And this one’s not great but, as soon as I heard it I thought, “wow, the songs aren’t not my cup but there’s something bout this production that I really like.”
So, I went off to the Wiki machine to read about it and, boom, there it is.
This album was produced at Sound City.
Everything on this is crisp and separated so nicely. The guitars crackle and the drums are just excellently spaced. 
I want to believe that this was recorded on the Neve console that was highlighted in the documentary “Sound City”, the same console that now resides in Dave Grohl’s house. The same one that Working Class Dog was recorded on. 
Cheap Trick. Tom Petty. Rick. Pat Benater. Evel Knevel. ;) And a host of others made some classic records at that studio.
This is not one of them. But it’s not terrible. It almost feels like the end of an era album. Like the sounding bell for the end of the prog concept album as we came to know them in the 70s. 


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