''Civilian'' is the eleventh and final studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

band

Gentle Giant Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-inst ...

, released in 1980. It was recorded at

Sound City Studios Sound City Studios is a recording studio in Los Angeles, California, known as one of the most successful in popular music. The complex opened in 1969 in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. The facility had previously been a production facto ...

in the

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, t ...

neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with former

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

engineer

Geoff Emerick Geoffrey Ernest Emerick (5 December 1945 – 2 October 2018) was an English sound engineer and record producer who worked with the Beatles on their albums '' Revolver'' (1966), '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (1967) and ''Abbey Road ...

. Consisting mostly of short rock songs, it is closer to a traditional rock sound than the progressive style for which the band is best known. The album also marked a return to

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in the U.S. and Canada after an eight-year hiatus; the band's last album released with Columbia had been 1972's ''

Octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttle ...

''. The album peaked at No. 203 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Soon after the album's release, Gentle Giant played a final tour and then split up. A previously unreleased track, "Heroes No More", has been included on some CD reissues of the album. Another track from the same period, "You Haven't a Chance", appeared on the compilation album '' Under Construction'' 17 years later.

Critical reception

Reviewing the 2006 Gentle Giant reissues, ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' deemed ''Civilian'' "bland" and a bomb "that destroyed the band."

Track listing

All lead vocals by

Derek Shulman Derek Victor Shulman (born 11 February 1947) is a Scottish musician and singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record executive. From 1970 to 1980, he was lead vocalist for the band Gentle Giant. Career Born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland, Shul ...

, except "Shadows on the Street", sung by

Kerry Minnear Kerry Churchill Minnear (born 2 January 1948 in the town of Shaftesbury in Dorset, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician known primarily for his work with the progressive rock band Gentle Giant from 1970 to 1980. He graduated from the Ro ...

Personnel

;Gentle Giant * Gary Green –

electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

on all tracks except track 3 *

–

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(tracks 1–7, 9),

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

(tracks 1, 3-9),

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

(tracks 2, 3, 9),

Clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

(track 7),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(track 3), lead vocals on track 3 *

– lead vocals on all tracks except track 3 *

Ray Shulman Raymond Shulman (born 8 December 1949) is a Scottish musician, and the youngest of three brothers in progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Shulman was born in Portsmouth. His father was a trumpet player in a jazz band, and that was the first inst ...

– bass,

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(tracks 5, 6), backing vocals *

John Weathers John Patrick 'Pugwash' Weathers (born 7 February 1947) is a retired Welsh rock drummer, best known for playing with the progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Early life Born in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales, he moved to Swansea until, aged ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

(tracks 4–6, 8, 9),

varispeed A variable speed pitch control (or vari-speed) is a control on an audio device such as a turntable, tape recorder, or CD player that allows the operator to deviate from a standard speed (such as 33, 45 or even 78 rpm on a turntable), resulting i ...

cymbals A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

(track 1),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(track 7), backing vocalsGentle Giant's website (www.blazemonger.com/GG/)

Charts

Release details

*1980, UK, Chrysalis Records CHR 1285, Release Date ? May 1980, LP *1980, USA, Columbia Records JC 36341, Release Date 3 March 1980, LP *1980, Canada, Columbia Records JC 36341, Release Date ? ? 1980, LP *1994, UK, Terrapin Trucking TRUCKCD008, Release Date ? July 1994, CD (Re-Master) *1997, USA, One Way CD 28591, Release Date 28 October 1997, CD *1999, UK, Beat Goes On BGOCD435, Release Date 10 March 1999, CD (2 x CD with '' Playing the Fool – The Official Live'')

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1980 albums Gentle Giant albums Chrysalis Records albums Columbia Records albums Albums recorded at Sound City Studios