TRESPASS

For their second album, Genesis jettisoned the short songs, and started to compose symphonic rock songs. It was all very new and experimental, and Genesis was one of the first. And as the first to experiment in this field, they suffered some failures. This album is thus a mix of early successes and failures. First the successes. The opening track "Looking for Someone" is wonderful, a template for how to mix emotional heartfelt vocals with music that twists and turns, and which combined the best of classical and rock. This would influence the way they successfully shaped a number of their more tender and emotional compositions in the future. Meanwhile, the closer, "The Knife", shows how they can incorporate a harder edge, with fast tempos and complex time signatures into compelling extended epics. Those are the two great tunes. The rest of the album, I place in the category of failures, although I don't want to imply that there is nothing in them worth listening to. There are indeed some great passages amongst those tracks (in all of them, particularly 'Stagnation'). However, the transitions are often awkward and unsatisfying, and the songs move from musical to unmusical (and back) to often. Many of the tunes sound underdeveloped and immature compared to their later work (but of course, remember this is a Genesis album - underdeveloped early Genesis is generally better than most finished and mature mainstream rock!). Saying this, I don't think Genesis could have made their greats without first going through this period of experimentation, so I am still very happy they made this album. On balance, I give this album 6.8 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to mid 3 PA stars.

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