TRESPASS

This is truly one of the under-rated gems. While it lacks the high points of its successor, Nursery Chryme, I think its actually a more consistently strong album overall. In this period, Genesis were known more than anything for the contrast between quiet accoustic passages and more rocking segments, and no album showcases this contrast better than Trespass.

Lyrically, the album's main themes are of loss and of vengeance. It opens with the powerful 'Looking for Someone', which showcases Gabriel's vocals at their most desperate, amid rapid changes of mood in the music. 'White Mountain' is a folksy fable of the animal world, the story of a wolf who violates the sacred laws of his pack, only to be hunted down by his fomer king. 'Visions of Angels' is a song written by Anthony Phillips about Peter Gabriel's then girlfriend (later wife), Jill, and using a post-Rapture setting in which a nonbeliever's biggest concern is the fact that he can't understand what's happened to the woman he loves. 'Stagnation' also tells of an apocalyptic world in which a survivor of a nuclear holocaust lives out his days in isolation, and, more than any other song, points towards the future direction of the band. 'Dusk' is the simplest tune on the album, and deals again with religious issues concerning the separation of man from God and the role of fate and destiny in human life. 'The Knife' is probably the most famous song from the album, and by far the heaviest piece that Genesis ever performed, complete with violent lyrics from the point of view of a power-hungry revolutionary.

Original guitarist Anthony Phillips left after this album, but one cannot overemphasize the influence that he had on shaping the band's overall sound. As Trespass's main composer, the legend that is Genesis would be built upon the foundations that he more than anyone laid.