(Review from amazon, progarchives.com)

In 1979, the band relocated to America to record their last album, Civilian.

The music on this album has more in common with Rainbow, Whitesnake, Asia and such bands than with progressive rock. Yes, it is a “hard rock” album, but one who’s consistency of theme, musicality, and even subtlety, is unmatched by the cleverest of “Hard Rock” bands.

Right from the no-nonsense decidedly “undainty” opening drum riff and ensuing wall of sound on “Convenience” we know we are going for a ride. “All through the night” continues with Gary Green laying down a beautiful riff that the band takes in a completely but funky way that underlines the frustration of 20th century workaday factory life. “All through the Night” is as powerful a song about longing and unfulfilled lives as anything eliot himself could have written. Which then thunders into the incredibly angry “Number One” who’s opening is a brilliantly subversive bit of musicmanship by throwing off the down beat for the rest of the band by half a beat from where one would expect. In “Underground” one can feel the wheels turning round in the stale tunnel air.

“I am a Camera” starts with the trademark Gentle Giant opening of a song with a “sound” that counts the song in. This is actually rather a chilling song when you pay attention to the lyrics, especially in these days of omnipresent webcams etc. Don’t forget they wrote this in 1980; deceptively uptempo. But it is with the rolling, Sisyphus-like “Inside out” that this album reaches it’s paranoid anguished peak. One’s own hopes rise and fall with the beautiful guitar line while relentlessly trodding along with the protagonists own footsteps in John Weather’s rock solid beat. An absolutely heartwrenching song.

The last song says it all: “It’s not imagination”. While it’s a “jaunty” song about subliminal sexual advertising, it also states the themes of the album brilliantly: suppressed desires quashed by the “Civilian” world of consumerism, the downside of the industrial revolution.

This is an angry album from the Thatcher-era in England. It is one of raw power which is unfortunately and unfairly compared with the more “progressive” of Gentle Giant’s albums. As a result, hardcore Gentle Giant fans miss how deceptively and yes, subtley, progressive this “rock” album really is. This is not so much an album you listen to as it is one you ride.

Non-Gentle Giant fans won’t even know about this album, and Gentle Giant fans don’t like it, so why even bother? Because it deserves another chance. And as the final “bit” on the album says: “That’s all there is”.

Gentle Giant disbanded after this album.

Line-up:
- Gary Green / all guitars
- Kerry Minnear / keyboards, vocals
- Derek Shulman / vocals
- Ray Shulman / bass, acoustic guitars, backing vocals
- John Weathers / drums, backing vocals

Track List:
01. Convenience (Clean And Easy) (3:14)
02. All Through The Night (4:21)
03. Shadows On The Street (3:17)
04. Number One (4:42)
05. Underground (3:48)
06. I Am A Camera (3:31)
07. Inside Out (5:51)
08. It’s Not Imagination (4:03)
09. Heroes No More (Bonus) (4:38)

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