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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 29, 2011 16:54:14 GMT -5
Thanks, Plumber. When I first started getting into Genesis (pre-internet days), I had no idea which albums were which, and purchased "Nursery Cryme" thinking it would be like "Invisible Touch". Maybe my reviews can help folks like you decide where to start on the '70s-era stuff, and avoid any "what-the-heck-is-this?" moments like I had.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 29, 2011 16:44:44 GMT -5
The Comsat Angels
I love this band. They're a dark and moody new wave British band that most people haven't heard of.
This is what I'm listening to right now:
Their one moment in popular culture was a single featured in "Real Genius". If I redid my favorite '80s songs list, I'd absolutely include this one:
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:46:03 GMT -5
Calling All Stations (1997)I've been asked to be kind to this album, but I just can't. Calling All Stations was an ill-advised mistake of an album. Even Ray Wilson thinks so. Who's Ray Wilson, you ask? Exactly. Wilson was hired to replace the departed Phil Collins; Rutherford and Banks thought they could weather one more departure of a long-time member, as they had with Phillips, Gabriel, and Hackett. They were wrong. Wilson, who has some singing chops, was hired because he sounded darker and more like Gabriel, and the boys wanted to go back to some of the intricate progressive earlier sound. There were two problems with this: Wilson doesn't sound anything like Gabriel, and the boys wrote some of the least complex songs in their career. The album starts off with the title track, which is mildly interesting, but has absolutely no chorus. None. It also begins with a HUGE rip-off of the first notes on "Zoo Station" from U2's Achtung Baby. Maybe Genesis was trying to make their Achtung Baby, but instead they made Verhalten Baby. The second track, "Congo" is decent and was a decent hit. When the best track on the album is best described as "decent", you can start to get the picture. Then there's "Shipwrecked", which is a song so by-the-numbers and cliched, they ought to be embarrassed. All of the songs are completely devoid of character. Wilson's singing comes across as mediocre, but mainly because the songs are dry and hook-less. The whole thing just sounds bland and forgettable. They brought in two drummers to replace Phil, and their playing styles are so disparate that it's jarring to go from one song to the next. Why they couldn't have just hired the touring guys (Steurmer and Thompson) they'd played with for decades is beyond me. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part: every song fades out. The fade out is usually a recording studio cop out. When it works, it's done over a repeated chorus or some jamming or vocal riffing. On this album, the fade outs are during the verses! Wilson will be singing a new lyric in the song, and it'll...just...fade...out. Talk about anti-climactic. Even if the song was good (and most of them aren't), it would leave the listener with a bad aftertaste. The overall sound is indicative of the time. Sonically, and arrangement-wise, it sounds like a Seal album, or The Wallflowers, or any number of dark, late-'90s, corporate mood rock. Like Invisible Touch, Calling All Stations is a product of its time. Unfortunately, the late '90s was an awful time for popular music. *
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:45:32 GMT -5
We Can't Dance (1991)I've really enjoyed this process, and with each album, I've found new things to love. But I don't think I enjoyed rediscovering any album as much as We Can't Dance. I forgot how much it was a soundtrack to my high school days. By 1991, Genesis didn't need to impress anyone anymore. Not the record company, not the prog nerds, not the top-40 crowd. They didn't need the money, and they didn't need the fame. They had 20+years of experience and quality under their belts. As a result, there is a relaxed confidence on We Can't Dance. All of the songs are tight, all of the playing is crisp, and the mix is perfect. There's nothing too showy or serious, but nothing too loose or messy either. It's a professional, classy, and high-quality album. "No Son of Mine" is one of my favorite songs they ever did, played with passion, sung with power, and based on a behind-the-beat groove that lays back perfectly. "Jesus, He Knows Me" and "I Can't Dance" were other hits, both with silly videos showing the irreverent side the band always had. The former is a far better song than the latter, but I always enjoy when a band sounds like they're having fun. There are probably two or three too many songs here; I wouldn't have missed "Way of the World" or "Tell Me Why" or "Hold on My Heart" or "Since I Lost You". It's not that they're bad songs ("Hold on My Heart" was a huge hit, and "Since I Lost You" was written for Eric Clapton's son), I just wouldn't have missed them; and the album would have been tighter without them. The long songs on this album are amazing. "Driving the Last Spike" is so well written, it doesn't feel like a ten-minute song. "Dreaming While You Sleep" is the type of song only Genesis could pull off. It's a story of a hit-and-run driver living with the guilt of his crime while his victim lies in a coma. The main riff is on a marimba. Awesome. The jam on the second half of "Living Forever" is as impressive as any of the '70s output. "Fading Lights", the final song these three amazing musicians left us with, is a flawless send-off. It's a slow burn that builds into an avalanche of drum fills underneath a classic Tony Banks solo, then fades out quietly into the distance. The perfect bow on the career. Like 1983's self-titled album, this is one that I enjoy far more than most Genesis fans. So I rate it higher than it probably deserves. But too bad; it's my review. As I said before, I think the phrase, "relaxed confidence" best describes this album. The production, songwriting, performance, and overall feel of the album is relaxed and confident. And that makes for some damn fine listening. *****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:44:58 GMT -5
Invisible Touch (1986)In all of the reviews so far, I have been making the case that Phil Collins was not to blame for the changes in Genesis's sound. Anyone who believes that he was is just flat out wrong. It was a group effort, made up of many small changes. But now, I'm going to take a different angle. Let's say Phil is to blame; and that with his use of drum machines, a push towards simpler songs, and his runaway solo success, he made Genesis into an '80s pop radio behemoth, abandoning their former days of complex, deep rock for bigger audiences and more money. Explain to me how that's such a bad thing? I like Phil's solo stuff. He wrote some great songs and was a powerful force in some amazing music of my childhood. "Against All Odds"? "Take Me Home"? "Don't Lose My Number"? There is nothing wrong with those tracks, and a whole lot that's right. He also worked on Peter Gabriel's solo stuff, produced and played on a couple of huge hits for Frida (from ABBA) and Howard Jones. At the same time, Mike Rutherford was hitting it out of the park with The Mechanics on hits like "All I Need is a Miracle" and "Silent Running"- both OUTSTANDING songs. With that as a backdrop, it should come as no surprise that I love Invisible Touch. 8 songs on the album, 5 of them made the Billboard top 10. It stayed on the charts for 96 weeks, went 6-times platinum in the U.S., and sold 15 million copies worldwide. A bona fide classic. The hits are hits for a reason. "Invisible Touch", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", and "Land of Confusion" are required for any '80s mix. (Especially "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", which never gets old for me.) "In Too Deep" and "Throwing It All Away" aren't as good as other ballads in their catalog, but they're instantly recognizable. There's nothing in here to be ashamed of, and a lot to enjoy. The three non-hits are also valuable. "Anything She Does" is very fun, and a great driving song. It could easily have been just as big a hit as the others. "The Brazilian" is a nice atmospheric instrumental, but loses some points for being too electronic sounding and synth heavy. Then there's "Domino". Anyone who thinks that Genesis went soft and lost their progressive edge on this album really needs to listen to "Domino". It's one of the longer songs in their career (10:45), and an amazing ride through a great story about the pointlessness of violence. It's some of their best lyrics and most interesting music since the Gabriel days. Seeing it live is an experience not to be missed. When Phil starts singing about children playing with boats in a river of blood, well...that's pretty messed up. When he hits the climax of, "there's nothing you can do when you're next in line", it's just flat out awesome. One of my all-time favorites. Yes, Invisible Touch is a product of its time, but I loved the time, and I love the product. It didn't sell 15 million copies because it sucks. ****1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:44:19 GMT -5
Genesis (1983)Even though the band and the fans refer to this as the "Mama" album, it was officially self-titled to signify that all three guys wrote all of the songs together. Which is odd, because most people think that by this point, Phil Collins had taken over the band and single-handedly led them into the promised land of big bucks, huge audiences, and insipid pabulum masquerading as music. But that was not the case. In Phil's own words, " You try telling Tony Banks to play something he doesn't want to play. Good luck." The accusation that Phil's solo sound altered the Genesis sound has some merit, but not for the reason you think. In between Abacab and Genesis, Phil hit it big with two solo albums and the huge singles, "In The Air Tonight" and "You Can't Hurry Love". He had also played drums on his old friend Peter Gabriel's third solo album, working with an up-and-coming engineer named Hugh Padgham. Padgham, while experimenting with microphones and studio feedback, stumbled upon a new effect for Phil's drums -- a heavy noise gate effect. It gave a huge reverb to the snare and toms, which was suddenly cut off before the natural decay. It became Phil's signature drum sound, and became an industry standard in the '80s. Guess who produced Genesis? That's right, Hugh Padgham. He also worked with The Police, David Bowie, and The Fixx. So he knew how to get a talented band to sound good on the radio. Is that why "Mama" (the song) sounds so much like "In The Air Tonight"? Maybe. He had as much to do with the sound similarities between Phil's solo work and Genesis as Phil did. He deserves a lot credit/blame for the '80s Genesis sound. And I choose credit. I love the '80s Genesis sound. I loved '80s radio. My musical tastes are exceedingly diverse, but I cut my musical teeth listening to Z-95 and B-96 on my radio dial in the suburbs of Chicago between 1982 and 1987. You never forget your formative years. The very first "favorite song" I ever had was "That's All". I was 8 years old and had just received a Walkman as a birthday present. I heard the song and the world changed. I grabbed my sister's boom box -- the kind that could tape songs from the radio as they played-- and waited for the DJ to spin it again, with my fingers hovering over the "REC" button. "That's All" was the very first song I had my very own recording of, to play over and over again at my leisure. Even listening to it today, I'm amazed. Although the piano drives the song, it is so understated and quiet that the mood stays mellow. Phil, one of the world's best drummers ever, spends half the song just hitting the hi-hat on the off beats. The melody is perfect, the guitar accents are perfect, and the solos are perfect. The B-Section ("I could leave, but I won't go...") always makes me happy. It's what I call an "Antenna Song"; a song that exists somewhere up in the universe that simply had to be written (like "Yesterday" or "Love Shack"). Genesis just got their antenna up first. The rest of the album is also awesome. "Mama" is the polar opposite of "That's All". It's dark, brooding, atmospheric, and intense. The "Home By The Sea" suite is a fan favorite "long song", and even better live. "Takin' It All Too Hard" is an underrated and stellar ballad, far better than their later ballad hits. "Illegal Alien" and "Just a Job To Do" are great rockers with nice riffs and fun vocal tracks. The album closes out with two of my favorite Genesis songs, "Silver Rainbow" and "It's Gonna Get Better". They're both laid back and relaxing, but still quite interesting musically. Genesis isn't the band's most impressive album, nor is it their most well-known. It's simply the one that makes me feel the best when I listen to it. From the haunting opening of "Mama" to the uplifting conclusion of "It's Gonna Get Better", there's no filler, and there are no jarring moments that ruin the flow. One of the best albums of the '80s or any decade. *****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:43:41 GMT -5
Abacab (1981)I started these reviews with the idea that the story of Genesis is the story of MST. After Joel/Gabriel left, the quality didn't diminish nearly as much as people expected when Mike/Collins took over (seasons 5-6= A Trick of the Tail & Wind & Wuthering). Then Frank/Hackett left, leaving an odd, but still great, transitional phase (season 7= And Then There Were Three). Finally, the remaining team found their feet again and locked into a new groove; meaning the '80s era Genesis is the Sci-Fi era of MST, complete with its aficionados and critics. While listening to Abacab, I tried a thought experiment. What if this were Genesis's first album? What if they burst on the scene with the title track? Or "No Reply At All"? Or "Keep it Dark"? I can't imagine a single person would have said, "Boy, these guys are super cheesy sell-outs." I think the overwhelming response would have been, "Who are these guys who have such great hooks with such intricate musicianship?" No one, after watching "Puma Man" as their first episode, would say how the show wasn't as good without Trace. They all say, "What is this awesome show?!? I have to watch more!" Seriously, go back and listen to "No Reply at All". At the time, Genesis fans were apoplectic over the use of a horn section (Earth, Wind, and Fire in MY Genesis?! How dare they!) . But I think it's a tremendous piece of musicianship. Listen to Banks's overlapping keyboard riff. Or Rutherford's amazing and melodic bass line. It's just sick. That they made such a difficult song such a catchy song is something I find very impressive. Like Duke, Abacab is maddeningly inconsistent. It has some great songs ("No Reply at All", "Keep It Dark", "Dodo/Lurker", "Man on the Corner"). It has some passable filler ("Like It Or Not", "Another Record"). And it has the all-time lowest moment and worst song in their career ("Who Dunnit?"). The title track is a standard on classic rock radio, and it has some impressive moments. However, I find it unlistenable because of the aforementioned one-note bass pedal problem. It's like David Lee Roth's awful howl/scream. You can enjoy Van Halen for years and not notice it. But once you know it's there, you can't NOT notice it. Every time I listen to the song, "Abacab", the fact that there's no bass line and that the pedal tone never changes grates on me like nothing else. Which stinks because I used to really like the song. The low moments notwithstanding, Abacab is a decent album. The mix is an improvement on Duke, and they've reined in the extraneous jamming. Overall, it's a nice stepping stone to the upcoming albums which put Genesis over the top as an amazing radio rock band. ***1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:43:08 GMT -5
Duke (1980)Duke is a frustrating album. It has some really great moments, but it also has some big problems. Let's start with the good. The Good:"Behind the Lines" is a killer opener. The band opened with it on their 2007 tour, and it blew me away. "Duchess" has a great hook of a chorus melody, and is a powerful song about celebrity. "Misunderstanding", which was the first song Phil ever wrote for Genesis, was a worthy hit, and holds up 30 years later as a great song. "Turn It On Again" was another worthy hit and another great live song, and was written in 13/4. How cool is that? The band took a hiatus between ATTW3 and Duke so Phil could try to save his marriage (he couldn't) and so Tony & Mike could record solo albums. Phil came back with a newfound emotionalism in his voice and in his songwriting. Songs like "Misunderstanding" and the Rutherford-penned "Alone Tonight" showed that the lyrical dimension of the band had changed for good. Gone were the schoolboy/nerdish/Greek/British/fantasy/fairy tale lyrics of earlier albums; now the lyrics were emotional, relational, and much more immediate. I enjoy both styles, but I understand and enjoy the shift. After all, these guys weren't snobby, prep school teenagers anymore. They were husbands and fathers and...well, men. Half of the Duke album was written to be a mega-suite of songs, like "Supper's Ready". In fact, if you play "Behind the Lines", "Duchess", "Guide Vocal", "Turn It On Again", "Duke's Travels", and "Duke's End" in succession, it's a great piece of work. It's unfortunate that they didn't package it like that, but instead broke up the song cycle across the album. The Bad:The worst side effect of Hackett leaving the band? They stopped writing bass lines. Even though Rutherford had been using bass pedals for a few albums already, without another guitarist in the band, it seemed like he focused exclusively on rhythm guitar and put the bass away for good. This really affected the band's output. Phil & Mike weren't throwing down complicated, polyrhythmic fills together anymore. Instead, Phil was booming on 2 and 4, the bass became a pedal playing 16 measures on one note, and Mike was quietly noodling while Tony Banks took over playing the chord progressions. More than Phil's vocals, this was the change in the band's sound that lost their prog cred with me. A lot of the songs seem half-written. "Duchess" has a great chorus, but hardly any verse. Ditto "Man of Our Times". Ditto "Alone Tonight". The last 2 minutes of "Cul-De-Sac" are outstanding. The first 3 minutes? Not so much. Then there are the songs that are just weak, like "Heathaze" and "Please Don't Ask". Even the great songs "Duchess" and "Duke's Travels" have intros that are interminable. When I listen to the album as a whole, I can't get past the feeling that they needed an editor. The album needs to be 3 songs shorter, and the keepers needed another hour in the oven. The Ugly:The mix hurts. I have never liked the mix on Duke or Abacab. It's painful to listen to for very long. The drums overpower everything (and I'm one who loves drums high in the mix). Banks's synth sounds are so loaded with treble that they drown out any melody anywhere else. As I mentioned, the bass lines are non-existent and the one-note pedals just bore into your brain. On the slower songs, Rutherford runs his guitar through a cheesy chorus effect that just sounds like plastic. When I listen to great songs like "Duchess" or "Man of Our Time" or "Alone Tonight", all I can think about is how good those songs should sound instead of how they do sound. Critics peg Duke as the album when Genesis fully embraced their pop side and finally buried their prog side. If that's true, it had nothing to do with Phil's voice or his soon-to-explode solo career. It had everything to do with where they all were as songwriters, how they mixed the album, and how they played without a lead guitarist. Duke has its high points, and they are memorable. But better to experience them on a greatest hits package than to absorb this frustrating and messy album. ***1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:42:34 GMT -5
And Then There Were Three (1978)A lot of Genesis albums seem to go in pairs. Nursery Cryme matches well with Foxtrot. As I mentioned before, Selling England... and A Trick of the Tail sound incredibly alike. The upcoming Duke and Abacab could be a double album. In that vein, I've always thought that Wind and Wuthering and And Then There Were Three match up. They sound like they were recorded simultaneously. With two big exceptions: 1) Guitarist Steve Hackett left in between the albums, and 2) someone decided to turn up the drums. First- the loss of Steve Hackett was a far bigger shift in the band's sound than the loss of Peter Gabriel. When Gabriel left, they didn't really lose much. Phil's vocal range and style was very similar, and he could still play drums. When Hackett left, the band lost 25% of their instrumentation. Rutherford picked up some slack, but he's never been a lead player. Now, not only was Tony Banks the main influence in writing synth heavy songs, he was also the featured soloist on 90% of the album. Gone are the days of finger tapping leads and ripping, extended guitar solos. Instead, it's shorter songs and high-treble rock organ accents. This shift was thankfully balanced with the new production work of bringing Phil's drums up in the mix. Everyone loves the drum entrance from "In The Air Tonight" (even Mike Tyson!). But a couple of years before that came out, Phil was pounding out amazing tom fills on this album. Just listen to the album opener, "Down and Out", and you'll be amazed. His drums save quite a few numbers on this album from being dull and keyboarded to death (see "The Lady Lies" or "Scenes from a Night's Dream"). ATTW3 takes the sounds and vibe from Wind and Wuthering and makes them a lot better. "Down and Out" is the superior sibling to "Eleventh Earl of Mar". "Burning Rope" feels just like "One for the Vine". "Undertow" sounds like the sequel to "Afterglow" (I still get them confused). "Many Too Many" picks up right where "Your Own Special Way" left off. But there is one other development on this album that was lacking before: hooks. Not only are the songs shorter, and the drums louder, but the songs have melodic choruses and catchy keyboard & guitar lines. The arrangements are still complex, and there are plenty of progressive elements, but the hooks are there. See "The Ballad of Big", "Scenes from a Night's Dream", and "Many Too Many" for proof. And then there's the breakthrough single. "Follow You, Follow Me" closes the album, and became the first hit in America for the band. It's still one of my favorites, and a nice slow & bouncy groove. Nobody does a heavy-delay chucka-chucka guitar groove like Mike Rutherford (see also "The Living Years"). And when it's mixed with patented Phil Collins mellow, shuffle-rock drums, you've got a hit on your hands. Now, let the record show to all of the prog snobs and Phil-haters that "Follow You, Follow Me" was a Mike Rutherford song, and that ATTW3 (the first Genesis album with hooks) was almost entirely written without Phil's input, as he was in Vancouver trying to save his marriage the whole time. This transitional album was a Tony & Mike project, where they tried to bring some balls back to the Wind and Wuthering sound, while writing shorter songs because of the loss of Steve Hackett and his extended solos. I say it worked wonderfully and made for a great album. In retrospect, it functions nicely as a transition between the experimental era and the pop-friendly era. But I don't buy that there was any intention to sell out or make a more accessible album. I just think Tony & Mike were getting better at songwriting, and the band was getting tighter. Suddenly finding themselves as a trio pretty much forced them to be. And Then There Were Three is a VERY good album. ****1/2And here's the official video for "Follow You, Follow Me". Note Mike's green windbreaker and the awesome Vancouver Canucks jersey Tony's rocking.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:42:00 GMT -5
Wind and Wuthering (1976)Here's how the guys describe Wind and Wuthering: "It's the most romantic album we did, and probably my favorite." - Tony Banks "It's very much Tony's album...and I always see it as a feminine album; there were no real kind of ballsy driving songs on this album, and it's probably suffered for it." -Mike Rutherford It's definitely the most underrated and overlooked album in their catalog, and now I'm also going to underrate it. It's peaceful, layered, romantic, and most of all, boring. It's an album that works well on a cold, gray day. If music were weather, this album would be sleet. The title comes from Wuthering Heights, and two song titles are even taken from the last line of that book. Which makes sense, because if music were literature, this album would definitely be a cold and distant British novel. I think this is the album where the Genesis sound changed, and it had nothing to do with Phil Collins. Hardly anything on this album has to do with Phil Collins. It's almost entirely a Tony Banks and Steve Hackett feature. It's heavy with synth pads, acoustic interludes, and extended slow jams. If that's your thing, then bully for you. The only driving songs are the opener ("Eleventh Earl of Mar"), which is decent, but doesn't come close to the openers on other albums (like "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "Dance on a Volcano", or subsequent openers, "Down and Out" and "Behind the Lines") and the instrumental "Wot Gorilla?", which is decent but doesn't come close to instrumentals on other albums (like "Los Endos"). As for the rest of the album, it's not without its moments. "Your Own Special Way" (a Rutherford ballad) was their biggest hit at the time, and one that holds up pretty well. The album closer, Banks's "Afterglow", is a hidden gem that is a great sweeping, hold-up-your-lighter anthem. The rest of the album is pretty, but pretty forgettable. Taken as a whole, Wind and Wuthering is an enjoyable 50 minutes of wintertime listening. But there's nothing here that stands out to me and says, "Great music!" Recommended if you like layered keyboard or mellow background jams. ***1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:41:31 GMT -5
A Trick of the Tail (1976)Prog-rock snobs compare songs like "Supper's Ready" to songs like "Throwing It All Away" and they conclude that Phil Collins ruined Genesis when he took over. That's like comparing "Manos" with "Wild Wild World of Batwoman" and saying Mike ruined MST3K. We know better than that. The truth is that the band was always a band, and songwriting was a group effort on every album. Another truth is that A Trick of the Tail sounds more like Gabriel-era Genesis than The Lamb Lies Down did. Incidentally, Collins didn't want the job of lead singer, he considered it a demotion. A lead singer didn't have to be a good musician the way a drummer did. "All the singer has to do is look good and shake his bum," he said. But none of the 400 potential Gabriel replacements could match his range or understanding of the sound they were looking for. After the fragmented writing and recording process of Lamb, the band decided to go back to the old way of writing together, and created the perfect sister album to Selling England By the Pound. That the two albums sound so much alike reveals just how much Banks and Rutherford (and not just Gabriel) influenced the sound of the earlier albums. A Trick of the Tail is equal in almost every way to Selling England..., and is a classic in its own right. Track 1: Dance on a VolcanoThe best track on the album is actually better than anything on Selling England (except for maybe "Firth of Fifth"). The staccato and jarring drum track is a turning point for the band's sound. Before, Phil played jazzy and slippery snare accents. Here, he pounds the crap out of the kit like John Bonham. The jam section is tight and aggressive, and the high point of their instrumental compositions. It's got a nice Frank Zappa quality to it, but it's still pure Genesis. Track 2: EntangledTony Banks and Steve Hackett were always the madrigal fans in the band. Here, they combined two pieces they were each working on into a long piece that features 12-string guitar, celeste piano sounds, and big harmonies in the chorus. If I didn't know better, I'd swear they wrote it as an intentional sequel to "More Fool Me". Track 3: SquonkA fan favorite that's a nice low-end rocker. The lyrics are about a mythological creature that, when captured, escapes by crying itself into non-existence. Nifty. Plus, "Squonk" is a pretty cool word. Not to belabor the point, but I defy anyone to listen to these 3 tracks and tell me they sound musically or lyrically different than anything from the Gabriel-led albums. They don't. Track 4: Mad Man MoonIf there was any change in the sound after Pete left, it was that Tony Banks was featured more as a player and songwriter. Over the next few albums, you'll find a higher percentage of keyboard-driven, moody ballads with a ton of chords. That's what this song is, and it is not an asset to this album. It's a decent song, but the piano feature section goes on way too long. Track 5: Robbery, Assault, and BatteryThe way Phil uses different voices in this song to tell a story with different characters emulates Gabriel's character songs (like "Get 'Em Out By Friday"). The hook in the main verse and chorus melody is a precursor to a lot of the '80s output (like "Illegal Alien" or "Just a Job To Do"). The jam in the middle sounds like vintage '70s Genesis. This song is a great representation of all eras of the Genesis sound. Track 6: RipplesA personal favorite. A gorgeous and emotive song, with some very powerful chord moves and melody. When they played this on their 2007 tour, it was a highlight of the show. Track 7: A Trick of the TailA goofy number that totally would have fit on an earlier album. In fact, Banks wrote it for the Foxtrot sessions, but couldn't make it work at the time. Musically, it sounds like a mash-up of "Penny Lane", "Getting Better", with a little bit of "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good" mixed in for good measure. Lyrically, it's about a creature that leaves his home (a city of gold) and gets stuck on earth, where he's captured and caged by the weird indigenous people (who've "got no horns and they got no tails"). Finally, he escapes and goes home. Whew, that was a close one. Track 8: Los EndosThe album goes out with quite a bang. "Los Endos" is a recapitulation of the musical themes from throughout the album. It's another instrumental jam that makes a musician like me salivate, and then give up any hope in my abilities. As a nice tribute to Gabriel, on the fade out Phil sings a line from "Supper's Ready": "There's an angel standing in the sun, free to get back home." As I mentioned above, Selling England by the Pound and A Trick of the Tail are Genesis's Rubber Soul and Revolver. They are so much alike, they HAVE to go together. Sure, you could listen to one without the other, but why would you want to? If you only buy two Genesis albums, this is the second one. *****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:40:23 GMT -5
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)After proving they could sustain a story over 22 minutes with "Supper's Ready", and then proving they could write self-contained, shorter songs with equal aplomb on Selling England..., it only makes sense that Genesis's next album would be a full-blown rock opera. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is widely considered to be their masterwork; the culmination of the Gabriel era; the high water mark of the band's 30+ year career. It's a double album story that spreads over an hour and a half of music, and contains some of the most bizarre and brilliant songs they ever wrote. In fact, bizarre might be the best word to describe the album, and that's where it loses me. It's an odd duck. It sticks out as an anomaly in the middle of two very similar albums ( Selling England... and 1976's A Trick of the Tail). It would be like The Beatles writing and releasing The White Album in between Rubber Soul and Revolver. In fact, The White Album is what The Lamb... reminds me of the most. When viewed as a complete album, it's a fascinating, surreal, and impressive piece of work. When viewed as individual songs, it's jarring, inconsistent, and well...still fascinating. Some backstory: Gabriel was going the way of most lead singers; namely, he was getting all the press, starting to believe his own hype, and trying to drive the band toward his own personal artistic goals. The other 4 guys, however, were getting tired of being marginalized by the fans who regarded them as merely Gabriel's backing band, and didn't share his vision for costumed theater-rock. At the same time, Gabriel's wife was going through a very high-risk pregnancy, and the rest of the band couldn't (and didn't) really relate. In interviews, everyone in the band recollects that the writing of the album consisted of 4 guys in one room writing all of the music, and 1 guy coming in sporadically with increasingly incomprehensible lyrics. When the album was finally released, it contained a (long) short story introduction written by Gabriel, just to explain the setup of the story that the 23 songs were trying to tell. It didn't help. So what is the story of The Lamb...? Well, it goes a little something like this... Rael is a Puerto Rican gang member in New York City, who is pulled into a nightmarish underworld of weird creatures and dark adventures while he looks for his brother. There's a lot of Alice in Wonderland in there, some Greek mythology, some flashbacks, caves, corridors, pools of nectar, stalactite cages, snakes with women's heads, smoke that hardens into walls, and uhhhh, slippermen. Right. Oh yeah, in order to finally regain their proper form and escape the underworld, Rael and his brother have to be castrated by a shady doctor who puts their...um...parts into glass tubes. Rael has his stolen by a raven who then drops it off a cliff. Oops. Peter Gabriel said it was an attempt at a Pilgrim's Progress story. Phil Collins said it was about a guy with a split personality slipping into madness. No word on whether he was talking about Rael or Gabriel. Okay, so the story of The Lamb Lies Down... is completely unintelligible. That's par for the course when it comes to double album rock operas (see also Quadrophenia and The Wall.). What about the music? The first album/disc is amazing. From the piano charged title track opener to the lilting "Cuckoo Cocoon" to the eccentric "Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" to the intensity of "Back in NYC" to the goofy pop-rock "Counting Out Time", it's an amazing musical ride. It shows that these guys were unmatched in skill & creativity, and it's also amazingly listenable. Also included on the first half are two songs that are easily in the top-10 of the band's entire catalog: "In The Cage" and "Carpet Crawlers". "In the Cage" is an angry, up-tempo song based on a 3-over-2 groove that is the one time on the album they guys really let loose and rock. (In later live shows, they would medley "In the Cage" with the solo section of Selling England...'s "Cinema Show", and it was very awesome. See below.) "Carpet Crawlers" is a stunning piece of songwriting and melody. It's equal parts beautiful and haunting. (In 1999, the 5 guys reunited in the studio to re-record "Carpet Crawlers", with Phil & Peter each singing lead on half the song. That version might be the best track the band ever recorded.) The second album/disc? Not so much. It starts to unravel pretty quickly ("The Waiting Room"). The music doesn't hold together and the lyrics reach full-blown "what-the-hell?" status. Brian Eno was a co-producer, and you can tell that his random noises and effects-- which supported the first half very well-- are now just in the way. Every time I listen to the second disk, I find myself thinking, "I'll bet this would be mind-blowing if I was stoned. Or at a laser light show. Or both." But since neither of those things will ever happen, I can only tell you how it sounds when sober: a convoluted mess. That's not to say there aren't good moments (like "It") or good musicianship (like "Riding the Scree"). It just doesn't come close to the first half. I said in the last review that sometimes a prog band's reach can exceed their grasp. I think that's what happened here. However, they did grasp greatness for part of it, and if I was reviewing just the first half, I'd absolutely give it 5 stars. I'm reminded of the interviews on The Beatles Anthology documentary. Ringo said that in retrospect, The White Album would have been better had it been edited down to one album. George expressed similar sentiments. Paul thought about it for a minute and then said, "It's the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!" I think that's right. Without the oddity, it wouldn't be the same piece of art. That goes for The White Album and it should go for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Farewell, Peter Gabriel. You went out with a maddening classic. I'm sure you wouldn't have it any other way. ****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:39:44 GMT -5
Selling England By the Pound (1973)There's a sweet spot in musicianship where you play at the top of your ability, above and beyond the basics, but not beyond your skill. You push yourself to...say, 10% more than you've ever done, and it works. And when it does, you feel a special high that you reached something new. When the whole band does it together, with performance, songwriting, and arrangement, it's almost euphoric. Selling England By the Pound is Genesis at their most perfect. It's easily their best album, and one of the best albums in the history of rock. It's five musical geniuses all hitting their stride together. Each part is spotless and the whole is even better. Prog-rock can often become a sort of musical masturbation, where the players are only impressing themselves and the noodling doesn't accomplish anything. Every note on this album fits and accomplishes greatness, especially in the extended compositions. Another problem in prog-rock is that the band's reach often exceeds their grasp. They try to be too impressive, but their talent or songwriting can't keep up. This is absolutely not the case here. Genesis hits their sweet spot. Track 1: Dancing with the Moonlit KnightThe album starts with a solo Gabriel lyric. Hackett adds a pretty riff underneath, and Banks comes in with a beautiful piano line. It's pastoral and madrigal, and what every pastoral and madrigal piece of the first 3 albums was building towards. It climaxes around the 2 minute mark in a great release of a major chord. Then, the fun really starts. A ripping jam hits hard, complete with Hackett finger-tapping, volume swelling, and sweep-picking five years before Eddie Van Halen became famous for it. The original pastoral riff comes back with a vengeance, this time with a powerful half-time drum beat and Banks bringing in the choir effect. Another jam follows with Rutherford and Banks playing a duet of crazy scales and start-stop time signatures. Hackett brings it all back with a sweet, chorus-y guitar that closes out the song peacefully. 8 minutes of music perfection. Track 2: I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)The complexity of "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" is followed with a simple song- the first "hook" song the band really did, and their first radio hit in England. It's a basic riff in the verse, and a catchy chorus. That's it. Unlike almost everything else they'd done to this point, the song has a verse-chorus-verse-chorus arrangement. Gabriel's lyrics are based on the album's cover painting, where a gardener tells the story of his surroundings. It's pure British realism. It's a great song, and one they've played live for years. It fits perfectly in their medleys of early songs. Whenever they played it live, Phil would put on a tambourine dance, which is way more fun that it sounds. Track 3: Firth of FifthI'm not even going to try to be dispassionate about this one, it's my favorite Genesis song of all. There isn't a flaw anywhere. You all need to listen to it. Throw away every other word from these reviews and just listen to this song. If it doesn't make you a Genesis fan, then I can't help you. Banks wrote a classical piano piece that turned into one of the great instrumental jams of all time. The vocal parts are nothing to sneeze at, but the solo sections are what puts this over the top. Banks and Gabriel put together a flute solo that builds and builds and builds into something that rivals Mozart or Beethoven. Hackett follows with one of the all-time great guitar solos (and it's even better in the later years when touring guitarist Daryl Stuermer takes it to a whole other level. Go back and watch the video of this from the 2007 tour I posted at the beginning and see for yourself.) When it finally resolves to the major key at the 8-minute mark, it's a tremendous release and pay-off. As good as it gets. Track 4: More Fool MeAnother mellow and pretty song comes next. This is the second track where Phil sings lead vocals (the other one was Nursery Cryme's "For Absent Friends"). The twelve-string strumming and harmony-laden chorus sounds a bit like '70s A.M. radio stuff, like America or Bread. But I actually mean that as a compliment. It's from that mold, but far better. The melody is catchy and the arrangement is simple and clean. A hidden gem of early Genesis. Track 5: The Battle of Epping ForestIf there's a weak link to the album, this is it; but that's not a criticism. It would shine on any other album. It's just a tiny bit weaker than the other tracks, is all. There are a lot (a LOT) of lyrics on this one. But even though the story is almost too weighty for the song, it doesn't collapse. The music is just too good. Gabriel tells the story of rival gangs in a turf war, and uses different voices for each character. This is one of those occasions where I break rank with the old-Genesis lovers and say that it would have been better if Gabriel had toned it down a bit. In fact, I'd have loved to see what this could have been if it was done by Phil in the later years instead. Track 6: After the OrdealAn instrumental by Hackett that serves as an epilogue of sorts from "...Epping Forest". It's also a nice breather between that and the epic "Cinema Show". Banks and Gabriel didn't like it, and were against its inclusion on the album, but I'm glad they lost the argument. It fits the flow of the album wonderfully. Track 7: The Cinema ShowThe final epic of an album filled with epics. The song is made up of two parts: a gentle 12-string piece for the lyrics and a percussive solo section in 7/8 time. The lyrics were written by Banks and Rutherford and tell the story of a couple (named Romeo and Juliet; real original, right?) getting ready for a date at the cinema, and looking forward to it for different reasons. Also mentioned is Tiresias, a Greek character who lived as both a man and a woman and determined that romantic and erotic love is better for the woman. Huh. Anyway, it's an incredible piece of music, and like in "Firth of Fifth", when the jam finally resolves to the major key, it's one of the most fulfilling and triumphant moments in any band's catalog. Especially when they played it live. Track 8: Aisle of PlentyA peaceful recapitulation of the opening themes from "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight". It bookends the album just right, making the whole experience like listening to a symphony. A nice little bow on a perfect present. So there you go. The best album by one of my favorite bands. It's all downhill from here. Seriously, though, if you only buy one Genesis album, this is the one. *****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:38:56 GMT -5
Foxtrot (1972)"This is the rare art-rock album that excels at both the art and the rock, and it's the pinnacle of the genre..." So concludes the AllMusic review of Foxtrot, and it's exactly right. Let's hit it right out of the gate, "Watcher of the Skies" and "Supper's Ready" are two of the best songs ever written by anyone in the history of everything. But, like MST, they require that you pay attention. And the more attention you pay, the more reward you get for your efforts. Here's a free tip: Get a hold of those two songs, put on some headphones in a dark room, and ride the bliss. It'll change your life. Great albums need a great opener, and "Watcher of the Skies" delivers. I was trying to think of other classic album openers, and I couldn't think of many that work as well as this. Tony Banks starts things off with a 1:35 Mellotron solo. It was so universally regarded as brilliant that future models of the Mellotron had a "Watcher" setting. The melody and vocals that Gabriel came up with are catchy and accentuate all the things that made him great: fantastical imagery, theatrical, dynamic, and that great Gabriel grit at the top of his register. But the real heroes of "Watcher" are Rutherford and Collins. Their punchy, off-beat rhythm rolls like a snowball down a hill, gaining momentum, until it pummels its way into your subconscious. Phish covered this song when they inducted Genesis into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and that makes sense. It sounds like the song Phish tried their whole careers to write, but couldn't quite get there. The next three songs ("Time Table", "Get 'Em Out By Friday", and "Can-Utility and the Coastliners") are all good in their own right. They are a good mix of quiet art and story rock. Any of them would feel right at home on a Pink Floyd album. As far as album-filler material goes, they are an improvement on the middle songs from Trespass and Nursery Cryme. Next comes "Horizons", which is a short, gorgeous, classical guitar number that features Hackett at his best. It functions as a prelude to the massive and unparalleled "Supper's Ready", but it is itself otherworldly. And then there's "Supper's Ready". Holy mother of Jim, where do I start? I'll admit, it took me a long time to give it a shot. Even though I love Genesis, I was hesitant to believe the fanboys' claim that it was the BEST SONG EVER!!! I mean, it's 23 minutes long, for crying out loud! I finally gave it a once-over and shrugged. But then I found myself randomly humming a melody or singing a lyric that I couldn't place. Then I remembered, "Oh yeah. It was from that crazy-long Genesis tune." So I gave it another try. Then I listened to it in the car. Then I found a website that listed all of the arrangement parts and lyrics and times and listened to it while I read the story. Then I tried the headphones-in-the-dark experiment. And I have to say, the fanboys might be right. It's like Side 2 of Abbey Road, but much more on purpose. It's like a classical symphony, with all of the composite movements. It's not just jamming or complexity for the sake of complexity. It's an amazing journey. A 20 minute song was nothing new in 1972. Other bands like Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and even The Who (and later, Rush) tried to use extended pieces to tell a psychedelic story. But none of their attempts come close to "Supper's Ready", and I think those bands would admit as much (except maybe Roger Waters, that self-important ninny). The story of "Supper's Ready" adds to the epic proceedings. It tells of two lovers reuniting after a long separation (she tells him "your supper's ready"), only to be pulled into a journey of supernatural imagery, strange characters, and time travel. The climax occurs as they emerge from a metamorphosis and find themselves in the middle (at the end?) of the apocalypse at the end of the book of Revelation. They hear the angel talking of the New Jerusalem where the eternal feast of God will occur ("this is the supper of the mighty one"), and they are finally free "to get back home". It's a bit of Paradise Lost mixed with Dante's Inferno. And it would be pretentious and overblown if the music didn't perfectly match the story. I know Gabriel wasn't trying to represent a religious position, he was just telling a freaky story. But as a Christian myself, I find the climax to be particularly emotional and moving. YMMV, of course. I know progressive art-rock isn't everyone's cup o' noodles. But if it is, then you will never find a better album than Foxtrot. If it isn't, you still owe it to yourself to give Foxtrot a try. At least "Watcher of the Skies" and "Supper's Ready"; two songs you should listen to before you die. *****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2011 0:38:13 GMT -5
Nursery Cryme (1971)By the third album, Genesis finally had all the right ingredients. The album starts off with one of the all-time great story songs, "The Musical Box". It's pretty messed up. Gabriel wrote a backstory about two Victorian-era children playing croquet, and the girl decapitates the boy with her mallet. She later finds his favorite toy- a music box that plays "Old King Cole"- and opens it. At that moment, the boy's reconstituted soul reappears and talks to her. The lyrics to the song are his desperate appeal to her about the life he missed out on. The whole thing feels like a crazy Thomas Hardy nightmare. It's creepy, but in a really cool way. Musically, it's the best of their early work. The arrangement is very orchestral, starting with harpsichord, flute and mandolin and growing into a bombastic crescendo of crunchy guitar, haunting organ and polyrhythmic drums. Hackett's guitar lines and Banks's fuzz organ solo are particularly impressive. The only distraction is Gabriel's creepy whisper-talk-singing that I find especially annoying, especially on words like "touch" and "flesh". It's just really creepy, and not in a cool way. The next song, "For Absent Friends", is a very pretty two-minute folky ballad about two people going to church to pray for their deceased loved ones. It is a bit of a mix between "Julia" and "The Fool on the Hill", with the only music being Hackett's guitar and Phil Collins's vocal track. A perfect breather after the 10-minute long "Musical Box". The rest of the album is a mixed bag. "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" is a fun rock song where Gabriel sounds like he's channeling Ozzy Osbourne. The lyrics are over-the-top ridiculous about an unkillable weed that "prepares an onslaught, threatening the human race". "Seven Stones" and "Harold the Barrel" are passable, but unmemorable numbers. "Harlequin" sounds exactly like the title suggests- boring, Victorian, acoustic, madrigal and dull. The closing number, "The Fountain of Salmacis" is a decent bookend to the album. It's a musically complex retelling of the Greek story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus. Collins and Rutherford do a great job as a rhythm section of laying down a creative and interesting backdrop for this one; it's too bad that Collins's drums sound like empty Quaker Oats cans, though. Overall, Nursery Cryme is a stepping stone album, bridging the gap between the formative years to the era of greatness. Plus, it's got a really messed-up song about child decapitation, so there's that. ***
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