NURSERY CRYME

The first Genesis album to feature Phil Collins and Steve Hackett opens with The Musical Box, which is a fantastic showcase for both performers' unquestionable musical skills, and then continues in a louder, more confident, and more daring mould than Trespass. The acoustic pastoral style of the previous album, with its medieval atmosphere, has developed into a strange style which retains its pastoral roots (especially on songs like For Absent Friends) but adopts a more Victorian atmosphere, with musical boxes, malevolent hogweeds acquired by long-ago explorers, explorations of classical myth (as on the Fountain of Salmacis) - a favourite subject for the Victorians - and a bit of Dickensian social commentary on Harold the Barrel all contributing to the strange atmosphere of the album.

Another unique album from Genesis in a style they'd never quite revisit, which is both highly satisfying in its own right and points the way to the approach they'd take from Foxtrot to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Nursery Cryme deserves to be part of any prog collection.