ARCHIVE 1967-1975

And the reason is simple: Genesis was born pop, and had to die pop. Their progressive era was just a "brief" respite in order to accomodate to the tendency of the moment. Proof of this is not only their debut album, but CD4 of this compilation. As most reviewers have focused on CD's 1-3, I will call the readers' attention to this fourth disc, a compilation of demos and other rarities of the band's early days.

All of these compositions are raw demos that actually show the band's real direction from the very beginning. While some claim that Jonathan King was responsible for the poppy direction the band had in its debut, these songs are proof that pop was Genesis genre from their very start. The songs, most of them devoid of percussion (surely the band had not consolidated firmly by then), have the typical pop sound of the late sixties. Honestly, I find the tracks boring and dull, the band being still on its earliest stages of development and a long way yet to compose strong and commercially attractive hits. I cannot point even a single one, because all of them are pretty forgettable, and not just because of being pop, but because of being poor and uninspired pop.

Anyway, the band would temporarily leave the pop genre by the time Hackett joined the band, and would go back to its "roots" by the time he left. All of their members and alumni would follow suit in their solo works, with only a few exceptions. And this collection shows their true inclination.

Still the material found in the first three discs is worthy enough to earn it four stars!

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