{"product_id":"gentle_giant-acquiring_the_taste","title":"Acquiring The Taste","description":"\u003cp\u003eGentle Giant’s Acquiring the Taste is the British progressive-rock band’s second studio album, released in 1971 and produced by Tony Visconti. Its eight tracks move beyond the blues and soul influences of their debut, combining intricate rock arrangements with chamber music, jazz, and Renaissance-inspired vocal harmonies. The defining quality is experimentation, expressed through constantly changing instrumental combinations: guitars, bass, and drums share space with violin, woodwinds, vibraphone, harpsichord, Mellotron, and Moog synthesizer. Opener “Pantagruel’s Nativity,” inspired by François Rabelais’s fiction, establishes that breadth through layered voices, melodic percussion, brass, and electric guitar, introducing an album built around interlocking parts rather than conventional verse-and-chorus simplicity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Edge of Twilight” shifts into an intimate, unsettled atmosphere before a percussion passage featuring timpani and xylophone, while “The House, the Street, the Room” contrasts heavy riffs with an intricate instrumental interlude. Kerry Minnear’s brief Moog title piece provides a miniature counterpart to those larger arrangements, leading into the sea-shanty character of “Wreck,” where forceful rock passages alternate with gentler acoustic textures. “The Moon Is Down” and the slinking, chamber-like “Black Cat” continue the changes in mood before “Plain Truth” closes with blues-informed energy and Ray Shulman’s electric violin. Across approximately 39 minutes, the album connects its diverse influences through detailed ensemble writing, making the musicians’ versatility integral to the songs rather than an embellishment around them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Record Store","offers":[{"title":"CD \/ Album - Digipak","offer_id":67914316415290,"sku":"40302","price":25.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/2041\/0682\/files\/Screenshot_2026-11-06_at_7.54.15_PM.jpg?v=1794013087","url":"https:\/\/recordstore.ca\/products\/gentle_giant-acquiring_the_taste","provider":"Record Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}