FOXTROT

This was the second Genesis album that I ever heard. Every Christmas I ask for new cds from my mom, and those cds are chosen from this site. I look for high rated bands/albums I have never heard before and hopefully I come across a revelation. Christmas of 2007 I asked for Genesis SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND among others, and I was thoroughly impressed. In fact, I loved it so much that it took me nearly a year to move on to any other Genesis! Whenever I thought of trying out a new Genesis album it would always remind me of how much I loved SEBTP, and I would then find myself listening to that again.

After several months a friend of mine was still raving about Foxtrot, and I finally got myself to turn it on. That was still tough for me because I was still thinking about SEBTP! So, after another month I was finally able to listen to it with open ears, and I was addicted. For about a month I listened to it every other day.

From the start it was "Get 'Em Out By Friday" and "Can-Utility And The Coastliners" that stood out the most. Get 'Em had some keyboard lines in the middle that reminded me of SEBTP and the song would only grow on me from there because of the lyrics.

It is not immediately obvious while listening to Get Em that the song is a story between various characters. Once I read the lyrics and knew all of the different verses between all the characters the song opened up to a whole new level. With each verse there is a different character talking, and the song takes different tones based on the character. With Mrs. Barrow you have a sad quiet guitar which builds into Mr. Pebble yelling to have Mrs. Barrow removed from her tenant. It is also worth mentioning that the bass work through Mr. Pebble's verses is amazing, and can hide under the words and guitar if you're not listening. The attention to detail in the song to reflect the story is amazing, and should be experienced by all.

I could go into great depths about each song on the album, but I hate writing direct summaries of songs as much as I hate reading them. Hell, I could probably go on for pages on all the intricacies of Supper's Ready alone, but rather I'll say to give it time. The song is long, and goes through a ton of transitions, and it is pretty hard to digest at first, but letting it settle and knowing how all the pieces fit the whole is worth the effort, as this song is now in my top 3 favorite Genesis songs of all time with "The Cinema Show" and "Firth of Fifth" (don't ask me to order them).

Even though "Time Table" is a rather generic song, it isn't bad, and considering how excellent the rest of the album is I feel that it still deserves a 5 star rating. If you're still hung up on SEBTP like I was then give it time, or if you're new to Genesis then you're better served starting off at SEBTP as that album is more accessible, but try not to catch the bug that I did.

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