Free Hand
by Gentle Giant

Free Hand by Gentle Giant
Year: 1975
Release date: 1975-07-00
Overall rank: 5,390th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 96 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1975 (80th)
Award Top albums of the 1970s (856th)
Award Best albums of all time (5,390th)

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Product Details
Availability

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Gentle Giant - Free Hand (5.1 & 2.0 Steven Wilson Mix) [New CD] With Blu-Ray
Condition: Brand New


eBay
eBay
Free Hand by Gentle Giant (CD, Feb-1993, One Way Records)
Condition: Like New


eBay
eBay
Free Hand by Gentle Giant (CD, 2005)
Condition: Very Good


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Gentle Giant bestography

Free Hand is ranked 7th best out of 18 albums by Gentle Giant on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Gentle Giant is Octopus which is ranked number 2047 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 820.

Gentle Giant album bestography « Higher ranked (5,319th)
Acquiring The Taste
This album (5,390th)
Free Hand
Lower ranked (15,200th) »
The Missing Piece

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Free Hand track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Free Hand rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 5,390th | 1970s rank: 856th | 1975 rank: 80th

Free Hand collection

Free Hand ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 96 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 96 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
85/100
 
05/10/2026 19:16 emnasut  Ratings distribution  15387/100
 
75/100
 
02/18/2026 17:57 Adhura  Ratings distribution  1,67177/100
 
75/100
 
12/28/2025 02:51 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  11,41370/100
 
85/100
 
09/08/2025 03:21 ExTeaSea  Ratings distribution  5,20983/100
 
85/100
 
08/25/2025 01:02 FrancK  Ratings distribution  52083/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.8/100, a mean average of 78.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.0.

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Free Hand favourites

Showing all 14 members who have added this album as a favourite

Free Hand comments

Showing all 4 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Rating:  
75/100
From 07/27/2023 06:28 | #298357
Late Giant is very poppy and not very imaginative
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 08/29/2018 04:06 | #220221
On Reflection, Time To Kill and His Last Voyage are among my favorite GG songs. Those three songs are all amazing and all very different from one another. Gentle Giant has a way of always surprising you and proposing new ways to do songs. I think "Free Hand" is one of their best albums because it does exactly that. It surprises you and get you to places you wouldn't expect. It's also very consistent and works well as a whole. What a great album by a great band! Definitely in my top-3 GG albums.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 12/10/2017 22:20 | #202927
My favorite Gentle Giant album
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 03/03/2016 13:28 | #161172
A new sound for Gentle Giant. It took me while to like this record.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Best Albums of 1975
1. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
2. Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan
3. Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen
4. Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin
5. A Night At The Opera by Queen
6. Horses by Patti Smith
7. Another Green World by Eno
8. Tonight's The Night by Neil Young
9. Fleetwood Mac by Fleetwood Mac
10. Mothership Connection by Parliament