Seminal live album and the best live recording of the band i
Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 02/27/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Live albums often act as a summation of a career to date and usually indicates a move in a different direction for a band (sometimes they are money grabs, too but that's not the case here). In the case of Gentle Giant it was time to capture the band in their musical prime as performers and "Playing the Fool" does just that. Touching on just about every album the band made "Playing the Fool" sounds extremely good here. Is it an audiophile remastering? No. If you're expecting tape hiss, it's virtually non-existant and, yep, selective band compression was used BUT the album isn't brickwalled, the EQ isn't harsh (unlike some previous reissues)and we get the entire original release all on one disc. Fred Kervorkian (remastering engineer) and Ray Shulman went back to the original mastertapes (although this isn't the first time)and the results are a rich, supple sounding remaster that may not meet the perfect criteria of an audiophile but still manages to sound quite good for a remaster.
There aren't any bonus tracks (there wasn't on the original album either but a Quicktime video of the band in performance. Fear not though when I interviewed Derek Shulman he indicated that MORE video and audio releases are forthcoming from the archive of the band). "Playing the Fool" remains one of guitarist Gary Green's favorite albums (deservedly since he and the band shine here) and, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't any overdubbing that was done or, if it was done, was probably limited only to vocals. Having heard many live releases (of varying quality and having seen the band in concert when they were still together...if in doubt listen to "Breakdown in Brussels" where their equipment broke down and the band played "Sweet Georgia Brown" while they tried to repair the equipment)Gentle Giant was one of the few bands that could recreate their albums in concert AND often improve on them.
Is this worth picking up? Yep. For a modern remaster it sounds quite good with a nice soundstage, dynamic range and EQ choices that improve on some of the previous releases of the album. This is a classic album that could only have been improved with additional unreleased bonus tracks and, of course, a video of the band in their prime."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1