ABACAB

A massive step down from the decent Duke album, it sounds to me as if all artistic endeavour has been put on hold and desire for the almighty dollar has overtaken the direction. The album is just two plastic sounding and any emotional and creative edge has been eliminated for streamlining into radio play. I can understand that during the 80s bands needed radio play for survival, but many prog bands managed to have some creative edge during this period such as Mike Oldfield, Split Enz, Kraftwerk and King Crimson. There are tracks such as Abacab and Me and Sarah Jane that have potential, but thats about it, Who Dunnit is a lame equivalent of thier silly songs and Dodo/ Lurker just lacks substance. There are of course the lame ballads written by Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford. Phil Collins has lost all passion in his singing that he had in Duke and sounds heartless on this album, actually that basically sums up this album heartless, and overall lacks substance. How the mighty have fallen to this contemptible work. I would have considered giving this album two stars but I am a fan/collector of Genesis and I disliked it so much that I sold it, so If a fan like me doesn't find any point in owning it then it must be only for completionists. If were you stop at Duke and start getting Steve Hackett, Peter Gabrial and Marillion albums because Genesis dies right here.