...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

Rolling Stone mercilessly dubbed them "the Incredible Shrinking Band". Reduced to a trio, and clearly one with a paucity of good ideas, they probably should have at least instated a hiatus to stop and rethink (which they did AFTER this album).

Obviously the band are at an impasse, trying out all sorts of ideas. Unfortunately, most of them don't stick. On the plus side, "The Lady Lies" is a nice sort of farewell to their extended prog epic stuff, and "Down And Out" brings some dense fusion influence (courtesy of Collins' tenure with Brand X?), making for one of Genesis' most memorable album-openers ever! And "Many Too Many" and "Follow You Follow Me", while explicitly turning towards a pop direction, are just fine for what they are.

On the other hand, there is the matter of the rest of the album. It's a LONG album, too. 53 minutes WAS long for a vinyl record, remember! The repetitious "Burning Rope" showed that they had run out of ideas where epic sympho-prog was concerned. And with the exception of the superior "The Lady Lies", the story-song format was on its last legs here. It becomes almost self-parodic with the silly "Scenes From A Night's Dream", easily the most TORMATO-esque thing here. And what was up with all those Wild West-themed songs, anyway?

In the end, this feels like a mess, like a collection of demos. An exquisitely-produced collection of demos, but demos nonetheless. I think they were rushed into the studio too soon, probably pressured by Atlantic to bank on the success of WIND & WUTHERING. While "Follow You Follow Me" performed well, becoming their first American top 40 hit, it just felt like they weren't ready to make a whole album just yet.