...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

An special album, Hacket's departure was hard, but the band still had ideas... I'll review by song and then a complete review:

1.- Down and Out 8/10 This song is one of the first 5 songs i listened from Genesis, you'll know the rest on other reviews, and i really liked it, the first lyrics i learned also and in a crucial time where i was studying compute engeener, and the song says "If you're slow they'll run pass you, stand tall, see them falling over" and i always believed that, but i fell over anyway... whatever, this song its not the best, but it acomplished a lot in my life, the piano is not hard at all and that helped me on not to quit music.

2.- Undertow 7/10 Really calm and pretty song, pretty lyrics... it just makes you feel a lot of what its telling, this shows that this album is better suit to listen to it on a rainy night with some warm light inside your room... or something like the album artwork shows.

3.- Ballad of Big 7/10 It feels like an early Duke song, it starts with really pretty piano and then it starts to use chords that remind me of Duke, then changes again to something more cheery and so on, aweosome drum and bass work, this song shows the strenght of this 3 people alone, i can say that this also shows that the band style and album name changes with what kind of sound is using Tony Banks in the Piano.

4.- Snowbound 7/10 Is that Rutherford playing that pretty guitar? Yes, he compossed this and it's a really beautyful song, again, pretty calm like Undertow and the vocal work alongside the piano goes really well.

5.- Burning Rope 10/10 The strenght of this album, a really well composed prog song that feels like a ballad more than Ballad of Big, here we can feel the whole band doing something that it's calm but that it also changes a lot inside that. Aweosome work by Michael Rutherford in doing the solo. I really don't know if this song needs Steve Hacket, it's as if he was in there somehow.

6.- Deep in the Motherlode 7/10 I really like this song, specially the piano work, i mainly give a 7 to the songs i like a lot but somehow feel a little repetitive. This song feels less melancholic than the others though.

7.- Many too Many 7/10 Another song that's really calm and melancholic, this time it's a little more simple, because the battery and the bass are more prominent, the little bits of piano add to the melancholic feel of the song, as almost every piano does in a melancholic song, the drumming gives the step forward to the strong voice of Phil to pop-up, and near the end, Michael Rutherford does another solo that reminds me a lot of the final part from Squonk, and that's good.

8.- Scenes from a Night's Dream 7/10 An entertaining song that leaves the common theme and feel of the album, but not enough to feel alien. Every instrument is working to make the melody, including the voice, everything follows, so it feels a little simple, except for the battery in for the most part.

9.- Say It's Alright Joe 7/10 And we go back to how the album has always feeled, the piano sets the atmosphere in a really great way here, and the bass plays a little bit in the background, they both give nice layers to the song... then the song changes and goes dramatic for some seconds (the drums appear), and goes back again to what it was, and so on...

10.- The Lady Lies 8/10 And back to another more dramatic song, i can see a patron here, and i really like, this song is really good, gives a sense of adventure, it gets a little repetitive and simple at times, but the chorus gets a really complex drum/bass... and ends with an interesting piano/bass solo and goes back again to the aweosome chorus.

11.- Follow You, Follow Me 9/10 I should feel bad for giving a nearly perfect score to a song so simple? I really wish they played more songs of the album instead of this one at concerts, but what can i say, it grew on me, it reminds me of this aweosome album even tho it doesn't represent it at all. It's a really cheerful song that makes me want to start the day and to do my best.

All in all, this album gets a 76 out of 100, wich gives us 3,8 stars... and i'll give it 4 this time, it's a really relaxing album with some dramatic songs here and there, it's perfect for what the artwork shows, to play this album, to look at how the sun sets and how it paints the clouds with it's orange glow. It's not Hacket, it's different and not bad at all.

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B-Sides

1.- The Day the Light Went Out 7/10 This song explores some really interesting grounds, specially with Phil's voice, the rythm and tempo are really enjoyable and keep me hooked. But in the end of the day, this song is still a little repetitive. Reminds me of "Scenes from a Nightsdream", while that song follows an efective structure while being repetitve, this one feels like it will take you to places but it doesn't get quite there.

2.- Vancouver 7/10 Another mellow song that could've been on this album, it feels more light than the other songs in that regard, it's still a good listen, with some little interesing ideas, it feels a little short though.

In conclusion, the B-Sides wouldn't have affected the score on this album that much for me, they fit here without problems, but at the same time i can see why they left these 2 songs out, the first one has some kind of weird moments with Phil's voice that they maybe thought they weren't going to be accepted and the second song was maybe a little too short and it got the cut.

As i said in my previous "B-Sides" update with the Abacab album, i'll keep doing this with more albums and i'll do new reviews soon, while i also said that i will cover videos and concerts froms this albums, but i think that i worded it wrong, i should've said the live versions of these songs that have been played on other concerts, and i also wanted to talk about a little history on how the band approached each album.

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