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Gentle Giant's second album was released when "prog" was truly leaving its cradle, the same year as "Nursery Cryme" (Genesis), "Aqualung"(Jethro Tull), "Islands"(King Crimson), and "Fragile"(Yes), of course following a bit on the heels of King Crimson's landmark album "In the Court of the Crimson King" (1969). Like some of these contemporaries, this was the time Gentle Giant also moved beyond the blues and soul styles of their previous work (their self-titled debut). In "Pantagruel's Nativity," atmospheric or folky Yes-style passages bookend a menacing, angular King Crimson middle section, which features the lush vocal orchestration that Gentle Giant would become known for in a haunting chorus. They double-down on the sinister riffs (by way of King Crimson) in "The House, the Street, the Room"****, culminating at the "heavy-metallic" guitar solo. They rock out more in the style of Jethro Tull in "Wreck" and "Plain Truth" (the former resembling "Cross-Eyed Mary" in parts); "The Moon Is Down" is in the standard prog-Renn-faire mode, while the jam section is similar to the jazz-rock of "Living In The Past."
The rest of the tracks are less clearly defined as rock, including the short, pleasant title track, a synth instrumental that could be Genesis or maybe a weird exploration like Garth Hudson (of The Band) would do. The weird "Black Cat" evokes the creeping travelling of a feline, while "Edge of Twilight" is more of a soft sound collage than a song. At this point Gentle Giant hadn't developed the aggressive speed that would make some later work especially technically impressive (or that Genesis was already employing). At this point they seem more or less on par with the work of their aforementioned peers, though their multi-layered vocal arrangements are one aspect that set them apart.
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