DUKE

After two romantic Genesis albums, the 80's started with the most melancholic and broken-hearted Genesis album - Duke. Duke retains very strong progressive rock elements for the last time ever but unabashed radio-friendly pop takes more place on the surface. The Duke's suite adheres to the highest Genesis standards (with the exception of "Duchess" which is a good experiment but a bit repetitive). "Duke's travels" is an astonishing journey by Banks and Collins that could have blown away almost any other prog-rock band in the 1980. Banks comes with two well though-out mini epics "Heathaze" and "Cul-de-sac" with great synth/grand piano background instrumentation. Semi-prog "Man of our times" is clearly heavy on bass tones and penned by Rutherford, well heavy drummed by Collins. The rest of the material corresponds to good pop/rock songs, mostly with feelings of sadness and ever improving Collins singing abilities with great harmonies and emotional depth. My only complaint is "Misunderstanding" which should have been left to a solo Collins album and is a bit of disgrace for Genesis. I listened to this album heavily along with ATTWT and Wind and Wuthering when I emotionally felt the same mood. Recommended to fans of accessible prog-rock and intelligent pop.