DUKE

From my point of view, a HUGE improvement over what I consider the worst Genesis album (not counting the very first one and the very last one :P). "Duke" is a very curious piece of work in terms of how it blends prog and pop. The pop conversion has begun for Genesis, and for me, it would never work better than here. From "Abacab" on pop would dominate the scene, but here in Duke, things work in a curious way that I find fascinating.

Take "Turn it on Again", for instance. It quickly became a Genesis staple in concerts (with or without the sometimes painful medley) and remains one of the bands most popular song... yet parts of it are in a weird time signature, taking it beyond the pop realm. By themselves, songs like "Duchess" or "Guide Vocal" could easily be considered straight pop. Yet, combined with the opener "Behind the Lines" (amazingly fun song for me), "Turn it on Again" and the closing tracks "Duke's Travels" and "Duke's End", they create a thematical suite about different points of view within the music industry and its stars which, admittedly, is not Wish You Were Here but it has a coherence in regards of melodies and lyrics revisited (such as having the Turn it on Again melody in straight 4/4 during "Duke's End") that I cannot help but admire.

Apart from those aformentioned songs that make up what's commonly known as the "Duke Suite", here you can also enjoy two Banks compositions which I find extraordinary: the poignant "Heathaze" ("the trees and I are shaken by the same winds, but whereas the trees would loose their withered leaves, I cannot seem to shake them loose"... nice lyrics) and "Cul-de-Sac". Wish I could say the same for the Collins songs: by this time Phil was writing on his own and although I've always liked him, I feel his solo style was the worst addition to the pop Genesis of the 80's (which otherwise I love just the same as the prog 70's, only for different reasons). Here we have to put up with "Misunderstanding", which sounds like the Beach Boys on autopilot, and the self-confessional "Please Don't Ask", a leftover from Phil's first solo album, which, like future Genesis songs written by Collins alone, sounds out of place.

What's left? Oh, Mike's songs. Not really extraordinary. "Man of our Times" sounds a bit like "Back in NYC" with that arpeggio keyboard loop which would show up so much in Marillion's first albums. And "Alone Again", well... I just can put up with it.

All in all, a hugely enjoyable album, the last to feature a great drum sound for a while, and a real gem in terms of combining prog and pop.