ABACAB

Abacab, considered by many to be one of Genesis's worst album. This is where the band started to concentrate on the hits rather than the music. It's clear that here they still have a little bit of prog left in them but in general, all they've done here is crammed a bunch of pop-rockers onto one album. While the two to precede this one (without Hackett) has been characterized by strong strong writing, this one is characterized by pop song writing. As though the success of ''Follow You Follow Me'' had been some kind of revelation, Genesis starts to venture very far away from where they started, turning back to look at their old fans maybe once or twice.

The album starts off (semi-)promisingly with the title track, ABACAB. This is a strong rock song that sounds like anything that could have been off the last two albums, good vocals and drumming. Other songs on the record such as ME AND SARAH JANE and DODO/LURKER are also fairly pleasing to the ear, with their eerie soundscapes and fairly long format, it almost seems as though Genesis has started to make a turnaround. The pop-intervention may need to be called off.

Then we get to the pop songs. More likely to be heard on love-song-radio than any prog compilation, some of these songs are absolute torture to the progger's ears. NO REPLY AT ALL, with it's saxophones, poppy vocals and lyrics/structure makes this song one that makes one wonder what happened to the days of dancing with the moonlit knight. Other songs like the drum machined KEEP IT DARK and the forgettable LIKE IT OR NOT and ANOTHER RECORD are better to not listen to, again deteriorating the love that so many fans have for the Genesis.

WHO DUNNIT?... Let's not even go there. If you haven't heard it, I don't recommend that you ever do. Purely annoying. Referred to by Phil Collins as ''Our punk song''.

Ending comments:

2 stars, fans only. While contemplating giving the album 1, I decided that some of the tracks actually have enough merit to save it. Only recommended to the curious, and people to genuinely like 80s Genesis.

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