DUKE

The album where Genesis created a ridiculous story that has nothing to do with thi whole album, brilliant indeed. Entering the 80's Genesis wanted to create some sort of "suite" and they did but had to put some more songs and ultimately decided "hey, Supper's Ready it's too great, this suite will be put to shame so just put some songs between them" and that's how Duke came out the way it is. This album has also good B-sides and i'm thinking on updating all my previous reviews with B-side and Rehearsals content, once i finish reviewing these Genesis albums.

Also, Phil Collins was happening at this time, i almost forget in every review to mention the solo work they have done, and they have done A LOT of things solo, with other groups and at many things, but i think that while it has influenced on some songs, it really doesn't matter for me that much on these reviews.

As always i review by song.

1.- Behind the Lines 10/10 Now that's a strong start (spoilers), it's just majestic, like the start of the show, though made in a simpler nature it's catchy and epic, great start for this album. 1st part of the "Duke Suite". Edit: I forgot the lyrics, the lyrics fit the song and the instruments still pull off nice jams in between, and again it is considered a pop song because of it's estructure, but i give it the "prog-badge" because of it's theatrical intentions.

2.- Duchess 10/10 Many people regard this song as a pop one (because of its estructure), but at the start it gets a really emotional piano piece and then some really powerful lyrics and singing by Phil Collins, perfect continuation to the previous track. 2nd part of the "Duke Suite".

3.- Guide Vocal 10/10 Songs like these destroy the scale of a review by song, it's a perfect continuation to the previous song, has good lyrics and it's well composed... but it's too short. 3rd part of the "Duke Suite".

4.- Man of Our Times 8/10 I like how it sounds, a little exagerated and repetitive tho, the lyrics are almost unexistant tho, but that doesn't mean much to me, this song sounds like an experimentation that would lead to the creation of some Abacab songs, and this song also has influences from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (like that N.Y.C. song).

5.- Misunderstanding 9/10 Another song critically panned as popular, it has the structure and all, but it definitely has that special instrumental Genesis flavor, also this song sounds like it could fit in "... And then there were three... ". This song it's repetitive but the rythm it's really good + the Genesis spyce, so it's a win for me.

6.- Heathaze 10/10 It was hard to get into this song at first, but one day i was really sad and this song expressed perfectly how i felt and made me feel better some how. I really like the atmosphere on this song, it has the best lyrics from the album and i realized that this song was perfect for Mellotron, and discovered that someone on YT already added the Mellotron to this song and it's really good.

7.- Turn it on Again 10/10 The most hated song in this album by Genesis purists and the most loved by... well, everybody. This song it's relatively easy to play, but for the public that doesn't play music, it's hard to clap to this song, literally Phil Collins always claps to this song live so he can see and laugh at people failing miserably at following this weird mutated time signature that i don't remember how it was. As far as expressions go, this song brightens my day a lot. 4th part of the "Duke Suite" weirdly, it should've been Heathaze... or both.

8.- Alone Tonight 6/10 This song also fits "... And then there were three... ", but that one already had too much ballads, and here it fits because Genesis like always tries to bring happyness followed by sadness and so on. The song is very repetitive and simple, not that much interesting and that's why it gets a 6.

9.- Cul-De-Sac 6/10 This one certainly has an interesting start, but then rehashes it many times through the song and gets repetitive. Everything else is just fine, nothing really special. For some reason the way Phil sings in the chorus reminds me of a late 80's popular song, idk wich one.

10.- Please Don't Ask 6/10 I like how this song sounds, it's another ballad, it follows a similar structure as the previous song but i feels less repetitive, the problem is that the other song had an interesting start, this nothing, it's just a good song, nothing very special.

11.- Duke's Travels 10/10 This is my favorite instrumental song from the 80s, this song it's GENESIS, an incredible piece for all the instruments used and also the song that makes prog hardcore fans to say "Duke wasn't that bad, because of that Duke's Travels thing". This song takes me to a complete adventure that i have wanted to animate since i first heard this song, it's just amazing how every change they do in this song feels so perfect. I still haven't experienced the 5.1 Surround sound that the 2007 Full Remaster edition offers, so if you're going to hear this song on YT, hear anything but that first because YT doesn't support Surround. 5th part of the "Duke Suite".

12.- Duke's End 10/10 And the glory ending, with a remade version of the first song that's more complex and epic. 6th and Final part of the "Duke Suite".

As you can see, the Duke Suite got a 10 and everything else go less, this is a hard decision to make, this album got 88/100 and that's really close to 5 stars, they could've easily deserved that for the suite but the "midle" songs (aka 8, 9 and 10) are specially forgetable, so i can't say that this is a masterpiece. 4/5 Stars.

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