DUKE

After effectively treading water with "Then the were Three" seemingly unsure of which direction to take Genesis seemed far more assured with the follow up -"Duke" When I first heard it I felt some of the magic had gone out of their sound and I desperately missed the acoustic guitars and mellotron but it was hard not to be swept along by the positiveness that permeated the album.The opening track "Behind the Lines" quickly establishes the "new" Genesis- big bold and brassy and indicating Mike Rutherford's growing confidence as a lead guitarist.Even though the album overall has a very slick modern feel there is still plenty of progginess as well especially with the complex keyboard accompaniment on "Man of Our Times and of course the lengthy "Dukes Travels".But more tellingly is the band's apparent ease with producing a few concise pop songs (as opposed to the sole "pop" song (eg Trick of the Tail or I Know What I like) "Misunderstanding" is unbelievably catchy, and "Turn it In Again" with it's deceptively complex time signature (13/4) is pure ear candy and of course the beautiful lovelorn "Please Don't Ask" .Overall this album has gone up in my estimations more than any of their other albums. I initially lumped it together with the rest of their eighties output but now I can listen to the whole album and I really enjoy it. Importantly Genesis had well and truly proven that they were here to stay with the LP going straight to No1 in the UK. Not an absolute masterpiece but a minor classic.

4 stars

Share this GENESIS review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Lupton
• Report this review (#2693913)
• Buy GENESIS music online with PA partners
• Show all GENESIS MP3/Stream
• Go to GENESIS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Duke page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for GENESIS related discussions