...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

In the late 1990's I joined a Genesis mailing list "PaperLate" which provided new information about Genesis and in particular the period I had missed from "And Then There Were Three" through to "I Can't Dance". The Genesis Discography by Scott McMahon which is still floating around the net also helped renew my interest.

Luckily, I also managed to pick up the full set of genesis CDs at a sale from a local music shop which provided a low cost means of acquiring both the older and the more recent Collins-era CDs. My next set of reviews will cover the Collins-era in chronological order. Please note that although I was a fan from the early seventies, the first time I heard the Collins-era albums in full was on CD in the late 90's.

I was aware that Hackett had left after W+W and have most of his early vinyl releases. And Then There Were Three had two tracks that were relatively successful on the Australian charts - "Follow You Follow Me" and "Many Too Many". Although these were good songs I felt no inclination to purchase the album.

My opinion of this album is in line with most of the ProgArchive reviewers (70% give a 3 or 4 star rating). I personally would find it hard to give more than three stars simply because the production values are very poor. Compared to the earlier releases, the sound is murky with little separation of the instruments.

The writing and instrumentation is again dominated by Banks and several of the songs are similar to his "A Curious Feeling". Possibly his better material ended up on the solo album. Mike also released his "Small Creep's Day" at a similar time and this material was also better.

There are really no stand out tracks, but there are also no sub-standard tracks. The best include Scenes From A Night's Dream, The Lady Lies and Burning Rope which are 4 star material. Many Too Many and Follow You Follow Me are also 4 star but both are much lighter and perhaps more AOR rather than prog.

There are several songs which need a bit more work to make the 4 star standard including Down and Out and Undertow, perhaps with better production and mixing?

Overall the small number of 4 star songs and the poor production makes this a 3 star effort, however this rating may change after a listen to the new mix on the Box Set.

3 stars. Poor production lowers the score. Not essential.

Revised rating: the new mix on the box set really brings this disk life with Mike's guitar playing sounding a lot clearer and rather accomplished.

3.5 stars