Free Hand
by Gentle Giant

Free Hand by Gentle Giant
Year: 1975
Overall rank: 5,310th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 95 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1975 (78th)
Award Top albums of the 1970s (856th)
Award Best albums of all time (5,310th)

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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


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


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Gentle Giant - Free Hand (Steven Wilson Mix+Flat Mix) [New Vinyl LP] 180 Gram
Condition: New


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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 1982 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 835.

Gentle Giant album bestography « Higher ranked (5,210th)
Acquiring The Taste
This album (5,310th)
Free Hand
Lower ranked (5,310th) »
Free Hand

(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 rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 5,310th | 1970s rank: 856th | 1975 rank: 78th

Free Hand collection

Free Hand ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 95 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 95 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 
02/18/2026 17:57 Adhura  Ratings distribution  1,42777/100
 
75/100
 
12/28/2025 02:51 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  7,64370/100
 
85/100
 
09/08/2025 03:21 ExTeaSea  Ratings distribution  5,13282/100
 
85/100
 
08/25/2025 01:02 FrancK  Ratings distribution  50083/100
 
85/100
 
01/20/2025 17:03 RockyRaccoon  Ratings distribution  6,84984/100

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 77.9/100, 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
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

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. Another Green World by Eno
7. Horses by Patti Smith
8. Tonight's The Night by Neil Young
9. Fleetwood Mac by Fleetwood Mac
10. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell
11. Mothership Connection by Parliament
12. Toys In The Attic by Aerosmith
13. The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett
14. Zuma by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
15. Young Americans by David Bowie
16. Expensive Shit by Fela Kuti & Africa 70
17. The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan & The Band
18. Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy by Elton John
19. Sabotage by Black Sabbath
20. Katy Lied by Steely Dan
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