The Power and the Glory is Gentle Giant’s great concept album — eight pieces tracing the rise, compromise and fall of a leader, and ending exactly where they began so the whole cycle can start again. Released in 1974, it is their most cohesive statement, and its themes have never gone out of date.

The short version

The Power and the Glory (1974) is the sixth studio album by Gentle Giant, self-produced and released on WWA in Britain and Capitol in America, where it became their first album to chart. Made by the quintet of Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman, Kerry Minnear, Gary Green and John Weathers, it explores power and the way it corrupts, from the opening speech of ‘Proclamation’ to the closing ‘Valedictory,’ which shares its melody. It is more keyboard-driven and marginally more approachable than its predecessors.

Eight faces of power

Rather than tell a story scene by scene, Gentle Giant chose eight broad aspects of power and gave each one a song — Ray Shulman remarked that exploring the subject properly would have taken about ten albums. The band were careful to say that Watergate and the British politics of the day had not been their motivation; any topical resonance was coincidental. Derek Shulman put the theme simply: even the most altruistic person can be corrupted by power, whether in government, in business or in the music industry itself. The sleeve makes the point in one image — a playing-card king, shifty-eyed, one hand on a half-drawn sword.

The sound

This is a somewhat different Gentle Giant. Kerry Minnear’s keyboards lead the record, giving it a darker, more architectural sound than the guitar-driven In a Glass House, and the songs feel a touch more direct, with real hooks amid the counterpoint. John Weathers drives everything with weight and precision, Gary Green’s guitar bites when it needs to, and Derek Shulman sings with the cold authority the subject demands. The vocal writing, the shifting metres and the sudden turns from menace to tenderness are all present. What changes is the focus: for once, the whole album is pulling in one direction.

The songs

‘Proclamation’ opens with the leader’s speech, all jazzy electric piano and syncopated exchanges, promising much. ‘So Sincere’ and ‘Playing the Game’ expose the machinery beneath, while ‘Cogs in Cogs’ reduces the governed to interchangeable parts and ‘The Face’ delivers a public apology emptied of meaning. Between them sits ‘Aspirations,’ written by Ray Shulman and Kerry Minnear and perhaps the most beautiful slow piece the band ever made: in context a plea from the people to their rulers, out of context a love song. ‘Valedictory’ closes on the theme that opened the album, and the wheel turns again.

Reception and legacy

The album was warmly reviewed and gave Gentle Giant their first American chart entry, though the tide was already turning against progressive rock, and sales stayed modest. Its standing has grown steadily: many fans consider it their most cohesive album, and its unsentimental view of power reads as freshly now as it did then. There was a sour note at the time, when their label issued a non-album single against the band’s wishes and had to withdraw it. In 2014 Steven Wilson remixed the album for its fortieth anniversary — a fitting tribute to a record built with such care.

The verdict

The Power and the Glory sits just behind Octopus and Free Hand in most rankings, and it is arguably the best introduction to Gentle Giant for anyone who loves a concept album. It is darker and more focused than their other work, the ideas serve the theme, and the theme never stales. Come for the icy grandeur of ‘Proclamation,’ stay for the aching beauty of ‘Aspirations,’ and follow five musicians as they take one of humanity’s oldest subjects and make it sing.

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