NURSERY CRYME

When I started listening to music semi-seriously, Genesis were in their 3-man era producing some good music some of the time. Nursery Cryme was the first Peter Gabriel era album I heard - albeit in circa 1985 - and it blew me away on first hearing. For me, the standout tracks were - and are still - The Musical Box and The Fountain Of Salmacis. I think these two tracks are amongst the greatest album "bookends" of all time. There are times when I think The Musical Box is Genesis' best track, even ahead of the might Supper's Ready. If there is one miniscule criticism of the latter, it's that it can sometimes sound like 7 individual tracks glued together, albeit quite seamlessly. The Musical Box, however, never sounds anything other than a single ten and a half minute epic. The start is a glorious mix of three 12-string guitars - Tony Banks is playing guitar too at the start. The awesome middle section lets you know the new boys - Steve Hackett and Phil Collins - have arrived, with superb guitar work and drumming. It then goes quiet again before the immensely powerful closing section with Peter Gabriel pouring his heart out. This section was reprised admirably with vocals by Phil Collins on the Wind And Wuthering tour and was captured on the Seconds Out album. But Collins never quite matched the gut-wrenching emotion of Gabriel. The Fountain Of Salmacis starts with some gorgeous mellotron sounds and ends with a typically understated but excellent guitar solo by Steve Hackett. To these ears it still sounds fresh today. The Return Of The Giant Hogweed is the other epic and whilst I think it's a notch down on the afore-mentioned tracks, it is still excellent. And the ending is the hardest and heaviest the band ever sounded. The other tracks? Well Seven Stones is a very good track, drenched in mellotron sounds, that doesn't often get a mention. Harold The Barrel is almost pop, but the quirkiness and surreal lyrics are enough to keep the listener interested. Finally, For Absent Friends and Harlequin are gorgeous little tracks with great harmony singing by Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. In fact Collins is the uncredited lead singer on the former - maybe a sign of things to come? So to sum up, this is quintessential progressive rock and cannot be awarded anything less than 5 stars.