...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

At the time of its release in 1978 I'm sure I wasn't the only Genesis fan who was disappointed by And Then There were Three... No long epics here; instead there are eleven short and straight to the point commercial rock songs. Yes this was the start of Genesis' metamorphosis from prog giants to lightweight eighties pop/rock.

This was of course their first album since Steve Hackett's departure who left down to reasons of feeling his own input was being neglected. However it's doubtful had he stayed that the change would have been so drastic.

With the benefit of hindsight and time And Then There Were Three isn't a total disaster and it's certainly better than the last two albums to feature Phil Collins before he jumped ship in the nineties. Sure there's a fair amount of lightweight fluff, none worse than the hit single Follow You, Follow Me. The songs certainly lack the complexity of the past but have an immediacy of melody and while there's nothing that I would consider an essential Genesis classic there's a handful of good and even a couple of very good tracks. Best is album opener Down And Out, darker sounding than anything else and brimming with power. Collins plays an excellent drum pattern playing fast triplets on his bass drum. Deep In The Motherlode also drives along nicely and Many Too Many is a pleasant ballad to name a few higher points.

And Then There Were Three is undoubtedly the worst album they had released so far, with the exception of their debut, From Genesis To Revelation, but it's far from a total disaster. Taken on its own terms without comparing it to past glories it sits as a fairly good, easily accessible light rock record.