TRESPASS

Trespass for me is the beginning of the essential Genesis. I'm not as down on From Genesis to Revelation as others are, but this one has some musical moments that gave me the goosebumps/rush sensation when I first started listening to it. Sure Hackett and Collins aren't there yet, but Anthony Phillips is on par with Hackett as witnessed by his huge discography of solo albums after he left the band. The drummer here, John Mayhew, faded off into obscurity. Apparently moved to Australia and became a carpenter.

The lyrics seem a bit gloomy for a band who's members were so young at the time. With Trespass, Genesis left behind the short song format, the strings and really made a quantum leap forward musically.

Stagnation is one my favorites on the album. There's and introduction to the song in the original LP album cover: "To Thomas S. Eiselberg, a very rich man, who was wise enough to spend all his fortunes in burying himself many miles beneath the ground. As the only surviving member of the human race, he inherited the whole world." The introduction to the Knife, which is also missing is "For those that trespass against us." Very moving line in Visions of Angels - "Ice is moving and the worlds begun to freeze, see the sunlight stopped and deadened by the breeze, Minds are empty bodies move insensitive, some believe that when they die they really live."

This one's long overdue for a remaster, but apparently MCA Records (USA) has ownership of this one. (A little update to that, according to this site there is apparently a remaster out there, but it's not readily available if at all.) My original CD copy is a Virgin Records release, which is also not a remaster, but is superior to the MCA version, which has some sloppy song fade outs that weren't in the original mix. I bought MCA's version thinking it was a remaster, but ended up selling it and keeping my original CD. The main fault I can find with the Virgin edition is they butchered the album cover art. Kind of ironic since the album cover is a painting with a knife slashing through it. Would have been nice to see inner album artwork reproduced as well.

I'd put Trespass head to head with any other progressive release from 1970. If not number one, then certainly in the top 5 or 10.