TRESPASS

Genesis' second album was the first to represent what was going to come from them, definitely not as elaborated as future classics; Trespass will always remain special to Genesis' catalogue with Anthony's dominating 12-string guitar leading almost every song, together with Tony's subtle mellotron soars, and finally Peter's wonderful voice at it's peak.

As you may notice from the brief description I just did, this means that Anthony Phillips, Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel are the main characters in this album. Each of them giving their whole soul to this album:

Peter Gabriel shines in the melo-dramatic opener Looking For Someone, which only songs like Dancing with Moonlit Knight or Supper's Ready can beat it vocally. Looking for Someone also presents a heavy mood with some symphonic piano/organ melodies, for those Symphonic fans. The composition is one of the best in the album, reaching the heights of The Knife, while not in the instrumentation potential.

Then, Anthony Phillips shines in the fierceful The Knife with his powerful distorted electric guitar, never beaten by Steve Hackett, in that aspect. However The Knife does not only present Anthony shining, if not also Tony Banks with his mighty galloping-esque organ, while Peter has a chance to shine with his beautiful, though always short(in time), flute. The Knife, compositionally and instrumentally, is the best song on Trespass. However, if there's one song in this album that breaks the angelic mellow flow Trespass is all about, it's this one unfortunately.

Now to Tony Banks: he also gets to shine in, the heaven-made, Stagnation, with his mellow organ touches which will break through the chorus with a majestic and sweet, symphonic-flavoured, organ. Don't you think I forgot about Peter, yes Peter shines here as well, lyrically and vocally. To sum it up, Stagnation is a acoustic, symphonic flavoured, gem.

However don't get me wrong, White Mountain, Visions of Angels and Dusk are all lovely songs, they are mellow ones in the likes of Stagnation, however they are pretty simple in structure with few mood/time changes, however the three of them are the ones responsible of giving the mellow and beautiful overall aspect to the album. They are highly enjoyable with an ocassional standout bit from each member.

Trespass ends up being Genesis'(70-77) less Prog-focused album, but also ends up being Genesis most beautiful one. Not Genesis' best, musically it's below all other Gabriel-era albums, but that charming touch this album has is definitely a bonus which no other Genesis album has, and this bonus is really what makes this album so damn good.

Essential addition to your Genesis collection, Excellent addition to your Prog collection: Angelic Masterpiece from 1970!

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