Gentle Giant 'Free Hand' Chrysalis CHR 1093 A1/B1 red text UK 1st + insert 1975
£
50
$
66
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Description
Gentle Giant 'Free Hand' Chrysalis CHR 1093 UK 1st press Vinyl, LP, with red rim text on the labels, released in 1975, with a printed lyric insert.
The vinyl appears to have been lightly played and is in great shape. It played through beautifully on my stereo - no skip or stick. It is housed in its original sleeve, which shows minimal signs of wear and which is in great condition - no rips or writing. The spine is intact legible. Similarly, the printed lyric insert is also in great shape, again, with minimal signs of wear and no rips or writing. Matrix / Runout Side 1 : CHR 1093 A-1U GD Matrix / Runout Side 2: CHR 1093 B-1U GG
'Free Hand' is Gentle Giant's seventh studio album, released in 1975. It was Gentle Giant's first album with their new label Chrysalis Records in the UK. It is noted for its high production values, and for a less dissonant, more accessible feel than their previous album 'The Power and the Glory'. It was their highest-charting album in the US, reaching number 48 on the Billboard 200.
The Great Rock Bible described the album: 'Duly signing a new deal in Britain with Chrysalis Records, their seventh album Free Hand (1975), again only found a paying audience (and Top 50 status) across the water. However, it did contain impressive vocal gymnastics, much in evidence on jewels in the crown, "Just The Same" and the renaissance/retro, part a cappella/part folk-rocker "On Reflection"; the latter combining four pieces of group scribed fugue. Minnear's un-medieval meanderings on the ivories for the pure-prog title track was just the ticket for a group still going strong despite others such as ELP and the aforementioned Genesis and King Crimson were collapsing under rock's evolution. Although at times exquisitely off-kilter, tracks such as "Time to Kill", the beautiful "His Last Voyage", the folkie "Mobile" and Tudor-esque instrumental ditty "Talybont", gave the set an aura of accessibility – a classic!'
Music Week's review said: 'One of the more unusual albums to be released this static summer, Free Hand lives up to the promise in the accompanying blurb of being "a melting pot of styles". The ingredients here arc, as in previous [Gentle] Giant offerings a mix of jazz, classical, folk, round-singing and rock. There are seven long tracks, some tuneful beaty numbers, and others broken up into songlets of different styles which manage to be different without being computerised'.
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