A CURIOUS FEELING

It's ironic that I came back to this album via the modern phenomenem of downloading off the internet. As a die hard Genesis fan I bought this, Tony Banks solo debut, on it'd release in October '79. Recorded during the Genesis hiatus after And Then There Were Three. At the time I enjoyed it, filed it away and forgot it. Many years later I replaced te vinyl with the CD issue, played it a couple of times and forgot it. Then i moved house and cleared out a lot of CD's, A Curious Feeling included. Fast forward a few more years and I'm downloading itunes and looking through the music store and I came across Tony Banks. Feeling a little nostalgic and a little flush I bought the album track-by-track @ 79p a tune! Its probably the best £8.69 I've spent in a long, long time. To understand this album you have to understand Tony Banks. Neither a rock star nor a natural performer Banks is unquestionably a composer. A composer born in the wrong century with a gift for being an equally skilled storyteller as well as master musician. The concept has been discussed elsewhere and centres around a man who has lost his memory and can only remember the last 6 or 7 years, who finds love then loses love and finally reconciles himself to a life without love and forever in the dark about his past. The work is steeped in melancholy as many of Banks' best Genesis songs were and contains the most gorgeous melodies buried deep into the songs with counter melodies delicately weaving in and out of time. It was never envisaged to play A Curious Feeling and accordingly Banks let his keyboards rn riot in the studio. Layer upon layer of orchestrated synth delicate piano lines over the top. The sound like they have been aged in old oak casks, the arrangements richly dense, orchestral and timeless. Like punk never happened? more like the 20th century never happened! The beauty is it does not, indeed cannot sound dated. This is timeless, haunting beautiful music made without a thought for the whims of fashion. As such it will continue to age like a fine brandy. The sad thing is that after this album Banks and Genesis were to follow the lead set by Phil Collins and set their considerable expertise on the sea of pop. The rest is history, the sales went through the roof but the music lost its spirit along the way. I think tony Banks briefly recovered on Stills achingly emotive "Still It Takes Me By Surprise" and most recently on "Seven" where Banks did what I suspected he has always wanted to do: write for an orchestra. Vaughn Williams and Sibelius would be proud!