WISE AFTER THE EVENT

This is really strange. Genesis original guitarrist´s first solo album (1977´s The Geese And The Ghost) is so much praised here and elsewhere. Still, I never thought it was all that good. However, his second work alone is hardly ever mentioned at all and when I first heard it recently I just fell in love with it immediately. Ok, it´s a much more "song" oriented work, and he does sing a lot on it. Phillips does not have a great voice, but it fits well his material and is surprisingly pleasant. A big surprise for me, since anyone who knows me is quite aware of how much demanding I am at the vocal department. Besides, the songs are just great, specially the first side of the old vinyl, where the more progressive material lays moslty. It reminds me a lot of early Genesis with its chimming 12 string acoustic guitar and gentle, pastoral feel of stuff from Tresspass or From Genesis To Revelation. A real joy to hear.

"Second side" of the CD is quite different, with lots of orchestration and a more commercial feel on them. That doesn´t mean they are bad, or even in the common sense of the "commercial" tag: they are just a little more accessible then the first side, but that´s about it. the overall quality is great, and it seems like two very different works put together side by side, even if Paperchachase does still sound like an Genesis out take. There are some outside help from various top prog players like Mel Collins, John Perry and Micheal Giles, but you´ll would never know they´re featured here had not for the sleeve credits. It´s very much an Anthony Philips solo work all along and a there´s not much room for long intrumental passages, if any.. This time there is no impout from his old collegues from Genesis either.

I can´t really point ou t a highlight. Maybe the aforementioned Paperchase should be mentioned. But I ended up loving this CD very much from beginning to end. It´s gentle, it´s fine and all the tracks have its own charm. Production could be a little better, but I guess it was adequate for the time (strangely it has a very similar low quality like all early Genesis stuff).

Rating: I guess it´s closer to 3.5 than to 4. But for personal taste reasons, I´ll give an extra half star. If you like the song oriented material of the Genesis first two albums, this is an excellent pick.