TRESPASS

This album really took me by surprise. I have never heard such a drastic change in sound for a band in a span of one year as GENESIS had. "From Genesis to Revelation" sounds like really bad Muzak to me. But these guys knew right away that they weren't going anywhere sounding like a second-rate MOODY BLUES or BEE GEES, so they decided to get serious. Their time at the notoriously exclusive and snooty Charterhouse school was over, and now was the time to get to business. They got rid of Jonathan King, which was a wise move. A small and up and coming label called Charisma Records showed interest in these guys.

Instead of stomach turning ballads with bad lyrics with trash-can quality sound, they went for extended progressive pieces, and real keyboard sounds (organ, Mellotron, piano). And "Trespass" was the result, and was their first real progressive album, a sound they will improve up while GABRIEL was still in the band. I have to admit that none of the music on the album is bad, while most people consider "The Knife" the most significant piece on the album, I also happen to enjoy "Looking For Someone", "White Mountain" and "Stagnation". I have to admit the music, for the most part seems to be a bit more somber than their following albums, especially on the acoustic number "Dusk". And at this point the band still didn't have a permenant drummer (they already went through John Silver and Chris Stewart, and now it was John Mayhew playing the drums here, but luckily things will quickly change when Phil COLLINS joined in). This is truly the sound of GENESIS going in the right direction, and it's not bad at all, so if you like GABRIEL-led GENESIS, you'll like this album.