ABACAB

"Abacab" in my opionion is the most interesting album that Genesis ever recorded. "Duke" flowed all together as an album, while "Abacab" is completely the opposite. The album tends to be a bit bi-polar, jumping around a lot and never really establishing a certain feel. Usually, I think this takes away from an album, but I almost feel at this point, Genesis did this intentionally. I view the album as one big experiment in a way. The people who call this a commercial selling out are completely off, as none of the songs strike me as being overly poppy or commercial. No matter how stripped down and simplified the songs can get, I don't think Genesis sounds commercial at all. Each song in some way has a quirk to it, which makes it a really cool album to listen to. Genesis in 1981 was diving full on into the yay era of the 1980s, which means lots of overly cold synthesizers that somehow manage to still sound bright and full of life. This is the album that I can play without shame to all my hardcore underground hip hop friends, and they all dig it a lot. The beats and Phil Collins inspired performance make this my favorite Genesis album. I guess because I like a lot of hip hop music, this album does the trick, because it serves as a sort of reference point for where a lot of good hip hop got its inspiration. Progressive purists be damned, this is the best Genesis album of them all!