...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

The mother of all transition albums and really it missing more than Steve Hackett although he would have helped. I really think what else is missing is the organ and mellotron. It is one thing to remove one element of your sound but two is really hard to compensate for. Genesis was not the only band who moved away from the more rich and full sounds of the Hammond to the thinner polyphonic synthesisers in this time period. It was almost like every band who had made their sound with a Hammond were no putting it back on the shelf.

Another problem is the band was really trying to write in a similar although shorter style but it doesn't work quite as well. The full Genesis sound needs the long instrumental spaces and we only hear glimpses of it. There hints of the old sound in the beginning an end of Down and Out where the keyboards and guitars almost make you think Hackett is there. Undertow is beautiful Tony Banks song and sounds in the vocals like Mad Man Moon and One for the Vine except it is missing the great instrumental parts much like Heathhaze on Duke. The same goes for Many too Many as well. The song that really points us to the not too distant future even more than the sappy Follow You is Scenes From a Night's Dream penned by both Banks and Collins in a very simple and poppy pace along with poppy vocals. This one sounds like it could have ended up on Invisible Touch.

In some ways they were starting to repeat themselves and it was short of thin at the seams. Instead of Harold the Barrel we have Big Jim Cooley. Instead of the Sandman we have the Snowman. Some of the themes were similar to past ones and I think the band thought as well and it was the key factor to cutting up the Duke Suite on the next album. Many of themes here are darker in feel but not anger or power but more and and depressed. this album doesn't make you feel good to listen too. Say it's Alright Joe is just a throw away.

Still there are some gems here in Burning Rope, Deep in the Motherlode and the Lady Lies that give you the image of Genesis past. Still in the end I would rather listen to Duke because it more upbeat than this one even though I rate them each 3 stars.

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