For fans of Genesis the sounds they put out in the eighties could be considered anti-Genesis. Certainly they turned their backs on the progressive rock leanings and focused more on pop music. I even remember an interview with Phil Collins where he said that Genesis had never been progressive rock but rather they had always just put several pop songs together to produce a longer piece of music. I also remember that comment enraging me and caused me to swear off of Genesis. That lasted a while, but eventually I gave in.

Well, this album was perhaps the final showing for the progressive rock stylings while foreshadowing the things to come. The bulk of this is proggy and very much in keeping with the post Gabriel albums to this point. For my money “No Reply At All” is the one song you need to skip over. If you program your player to miss that track this is a great disc.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2009  Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

This is one of the proggier songs on the disc. It’s hard rocking and a good tune (hit or not). This feels like it could have been a leftover from the Duke sessions. I really like the “C” part of this composition. For those who never heard the story, “abacab” refers to a song writing principle. You do section “a,” followed by section “b,” and then repeat “a,” and then do a section “c,” --- you get the idea. Of course, somehow it seems to me that they add a “d” into this (the percussive section that gives way to some killer keyboard textures, although I remember them saying that was the song structure of this. Perhaps they were referring to the single version, which I believe skipped this extended instrumental outro segment.