...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

This is a fine effort by Genesis. There are alot of pleasant songs on this album and it is certainly worth having. It is a far cry from their earlier works but different in this case is not a bad thing at all. "Down and Out" is a good album opener, nice and aggressive, and also sets the tone for the album well. "Undertow" and the next few following songs are good songs, but seem to be missing that Genesis complexity of old. Still, they aren't horible songs and you can listen to them and enjoy them. Starting at "Deep in the Motherlode" the album picks up and shows off some of it's better compositions. "Many Too Many" seems to be a commercial ballad, but listen to it again and you can hear some beautiful chord changes. The bass work by Rutherford is awesome in many places, for me particularly "The Lady Lies" and "Scenes from a Night's Dream" show excellent and beautiful work in this respect. "Say it's Alright Joe", again, is not quite commercial, it is quite a sad tune and not "pop" as you could call it. "The Lady Lies" is truly an awesome song, it smacks of disco, but it isn't Bee Gees, high tenor, let's do lots of coke disco... it's Genesis disco. Genesis disco actually sounds creative and has people playing instruments in it. genesis disco is good... very good indeed. Don't let the cheesy keyboard instrument 'stripper' sound in the beginning of the song fool you. The rest of the song is just cool. "Follow You, Follow Me" is really the only 'commercial' work on the album and not a very good commercial effort at that. It isn't bad and it isn't good, it just is, which to some people may be worse than just plain stinking. The album is actually enjoyable and in truth a more rewarding listening experience than many would criticize. Using comparitive criticism is an easy route to take for this album, but it isn;t the right approach. Face it, albums like 'Selling England by the Pound' do not come along everyday, or every year for that matter. Their sound has totally changed, but they are minus 2 out of 5 of the power lineup so what do you expect? Take the main vocalist and the lead guitarist out of ANY band and see if the sound dosen't change. Look at King Crimson, excellent band, but have to be seperated into periods because it was a band that constantly morphed. Most people would enjoy this album and it has enough complexity to satisfy the average progger. Although power proggers may not be impressed. If you are looking for long compositions like Yes' Close to the Edge or ELP's Tarkus than this isn't what you want. If you are looking for a collection of short, excellently written songs, than this album will make you happy. Not a bad album by any stretch and is worth 4 stars.