WIND & WUTHERING

This is an 'album of two halves'. I remember when I had the LP, I only listened to side two, and found the first side rather uninspired. Time has not diminished my original judgement. Genesis evidently always believed in the adage "fresh strawberries on top" and strove to make their album opener as attention grabbing as possible. This they achieved masterfully with all their previous works and are obviously trying the same trick here. But the 'Eleventh Earl of Mar' is not really a good song and any potential it may have had is diminished by its square drumming, uninteresting vocal performance and frankly overdone production. All 3 of these would become a regular feature from Genesis from now on unfortunately. 'One From The Vine' is slightly better to start with but in no way memorable. It also gets lost in noodling instrumental passages later on, another feature of this album. 'Your Own Special Way' is probably the highlight of side one, an agreeable albeit slight song. It pales by comparison with the lyrical tracks on ATITT. It too is overly long. This is followed by the forgettable throwaway instrumental 'Wot Gorilla'. All in all this is the poorest side that Genesis had yet produced. Side Two is a different story. 'All in A Mouse's night'. although not vintage Genesis, is a lot better than anything on the other side and makes an attractive opener. 'Blood on the Rooftops' is the highlight of the album both musically and lyrically. It is one of the most moving songs in their canon although strangely it never seems to have been performed live. Perhaps it is 'caviare to the general'. A pair of decent instrumentals follow although the second needless quotes from the Earl of Mar. 'Afterglow' is another fine song which matches the autumnal mood of BOTR and brings the album to a beautiful close. If only the first side had been the equal of the second, we would have had another Genesis classic. Sadly that was not to be.