TRESPASS

The truly first Genesis LP. I bought this vinyl album back in 1974. I already knew "The Knife" from the "Genesis Live" album (first one of my Genesis collection). I really felt in love with Trespass. Not a single track is weak.

Side one is equally balanced between three tracks of almost the same lenght. It is full of poetry, wonderfull acoustic moments, flute passages, and of course Peter's voice which had seriously grown up since the poor "From Genesis to Revelation". The three of them are really very good songs (probably in my top 20 best of the band). The ambience of the record is very smooth and tranquil, but never boring.

The opener "Looking For Someone" is my fave on this side and wonderfully combines soft parts with more vigorous ones. Peter is quite dramatic, and his so special voice serves the music briliantly.

The overall mood of this side is rather melancholic. "White Mountains" is so moving...especially the vocalized closing part. "Visions Of Angels" also leaves the listener quite touched. Delicate, sweet and melodic. It is almost on par with the opening song. Another excellent moment indeed.

Side two opens with "Stagnation" which I liked (and still do) very much. It is one of the most underrated one of the band (there will one track like this on the following two albums as well, but this another story). Scarcely played live, this track is very melodious. So far, I have to admit that this album owes an awful lot to the symphonic side of "ITCOTCK". And "Stagnation" is maybe the vibrant homage to this great album.

"Dusk" is a very cool acoustic track with nice guitar and flute moments. Pastoral and quite: on line with the rest of the material.

The closing number "The Knife" will always represent one of the favourite live track of the band. It is completely different from the other songs featured on "Trespass". What we get here is pure madness, almost hard rock.

The lyrics are pretty weird, dark and violent : "I'll give you the names of those you must kill, All must die with their children. Carry their heads to the palace of old, Hang them high, let the blood flow" !

Some electric guitar parts are extremely powerful, mighty shall I say. The lyrics are spledid as well and warn about the human madness during war periods.

This song represents a special souvenir for me: I was lucky (and therefore today old) enough to see them performing "The Lamb Lies Down" live in Brussels in April 75. Since Belgium has always been kind of special for "Genesis" (they played their first concert outside of the UK in Brussels on March 7, 1971 at la Ferme V), they played "The Knife" as the second and last encore (usually they were playing either "The Musical Box" OR "Watcher of the Skies"). Brussels was one of the very few venues of The Lamb tour where Genesis played two encores ! I still have the shiver when I remind myself of this fabulous moment.

For all these reasons, I rate this album with five stars. Excellent from start to finish (even if "Dusk" is a little weaker) it reminds me so many good souvenirs (especially in those dark days that I am facing now).

The essence of the band is there. Two new musicians will soon join the band and new directions will be explored. But that's another great story!

This review was edited on October 28th, 2009.

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