...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

How can a band survived the departure of such a great guitarist as Hackett and not replace him? Well the band will not do that well but all things considered this album is not as catastrophiic as most people tell it out to be. Sure, they will have their first top 10 hit with the atrocious Follow You! Sure, the epics are gone (save one that is relatively unnoticed)! Sure, they have no great instrumental passages , but this is a transitional album, not just musically as Collins was also close to slamming the door as his marriage was on the rocks..

Many tracks still have a Genesis touch , and no-one mentioned in the other reviews mentioned the only track referring to their previous stuff: Deep in the Motherlode . With this track being the only "epic" of the album (written by Rutherford on top of it - this actually almost makes up for the atrocious and endless tear-jerker Your Own Special Way on the previousalbum) telling the quest (a very common theme in Genesis tunes) about a young man who "still has mother's milk still wet behind his ears" in the great wide west human jungle.

But clearly the band chose to explore a different alley and explain it in the opening track, Down and Out as they apologize for the change to happen. Burning Rope , Allright Joe, Ballad Of Big are all decent tracks but have that unfinished feel as if they were waiting for Hackett to come back and put his guitar parts. And when guitars do intervene , they sound like Hackett (Many Too Many). Undertow is also worthy of note, but clearly the album is not of the calibre we had been so used to. But still quite good with what to come in a couple of albums later.

Of course , this pivotal album is the start of Genesis's metamorphosis from a Progressive Butterfly into a Pop Larva, but this album still has a few things going for itself. Those who blame Collins for the changes are simply wrong , his writing credits are few and far between. And nothing gets done in Genesis without banks 's consent.

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