A CURIOUS FEELING

I'm giving this one 3 stars just to balance things out, really. Having just recently acquired A Curious Feeling, I had very high expectations for it based on glowing reviews. After familiarizing myself with the album, I can say that it is very good, perhaps even 4 stars good, but not really superior to Tony's other best solo albums in my opinion.

This album does sound more reminiscent of old Genesis than Tony's later albums. By the same token, however, it is a little rough around the edges. I don't find the singer as objectionable as some others do, but the production quality is lacking. It sounds like something went really wrong in the mastering process. The trademark Banks orchestrated keyboards are there, but sound rather thin and harsh. There are some very nice instrumental ideas, but the lyrics are unexceptional and it's a very dark album, with lots of plodding slow songs. I like slow songs, but this record could really benefit from a couple of uptempo numbers. Definitely not a good album to cheer you up if you're feeling depressed!

If you really hate all 80's/90's Genesis, then this is probably the only Tony Banks album you might like. But for me, some of his later work (particularly Still and Strictly Inc) sounds much more polished and pretty. The later albums retain some of the musical adventurousness of early Genesis, blended with the pop sensibility of later Genesis.