...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

The line on . "And Then There Were Three" says that it marks the beginning of the band's commercial reinvention, which is misleading. Despite the loss of Steve HACKETT and the presence of the popular "Follow You, Follow Me", the band still has one foot firmly planted in the progressive rock of yore. The opening track, "Down and Out", actually addresses the pressure they felt to create more commercial music -- tellingly, it's one of the album's more complex tracks. With the trio splitting the songwriting and Mike RUTHEFORD assuming guitar duties, some different styles emerge. Tony BANKS' are the better tracks, as he may well be the most complete songwriter of the three; "The Lady Lies", "Many Too Many", "Burning Rope" and "Undertow" each invoke some small degree of majesty.

RUTHEFORD doesn't attempt to fill the void left by HACKETT, instead playing his typically polite guitar on songs like "Snowbound" and "Say It's Alright Joe". Phil COLLINS' drums assume a larger role in the mix, and he's clearly grown more comfortable as a vocalist, belting it out on songs like "Deep in the Motherlode". One of the best tracks from the album, "Scenes From A Night Dream", recounts the story of Little Nemo and includes some fantastic subject matter that prog rock fans will enjoy.

If there's any knock on the album, it's that the band can be noisy in their pursuit of a suitably "large" sound as a trio. (Oddly, GENESIS seemed to recover better from the loss of Peter GABRIEL than HACKETT.) They would re-think this approach on "Duke", abandoning prog's sprawling spires in favor of tighter arrangements that a trio could capably climb.