FOXTROT

The reason why this is my favorite Genesis album is not easily explained briefly. Many elements combine in many different ways to make this a thouroghly engaging listen from start to finish, from the haunting opening Mellotron chords to the tears of joy-inducing resurrection ending to "Supper's Ready." The Mellotron intro to "Watcher of the Skies" is just long enough to let you know that you're about to listen to something different, and the decrescendo right before the band VERY gradually joins in and builds up to the hammering odd-time main section is beyond suspenseful. Steve Hackett throws in some wild stereo- panning whip-like sweeps in this story of the reign of our species being taken over by a new one, an interesting anti-thesis to what's on the other side of the album. The coda to this song, like "The Musical Box" from the previous album, shows exactly why many call this band "symphonic rock." The next song, "Time Table", is an excellently produced pop ballad with moving lyrics about our tendencies to forget about equality. Again, Tony Banks uses just the right amount of notes to set up the moment when the band comes in to play a chord that sounds as if they had their briains wired together when they recorded it. There's some very delicate playing on this track, especially the plucked piano string solo that moves over an ever modulating chord sequence. On "Get 'Em Out By Friday" Peter Gabriel turns the role of lead singer into a one-person musical, playing multiple parts to tell a satirical story about greed in real estate over a groove that takes the Uriah Heepishness of "Return of the Giant Hogweed" and adds more jazz elements. The quiet, unison part in the middle is very tasteful, as is Steve Hackett's sparkly turns over the word "heaven." Following is "Can-Utility and the Coastliners", a song that may be hard to grasp upon first listen, but reveals itself to be a very excellently written and played cornocopia of the band's many sounds up to this point. I really like the strong, vivid sunset-like visual atmosphere conveyed in the part where Tony Banks' Mellotron floats over the acoustic guitar harmonies of Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford while Phil Collins dances like a Neptunian martial artist over the kit, and at the end of the song, Mike plays some lightening fast upper-register notes leading into a very jazz-rock heavy unison outro that's very impressive. On side two, we have "Horizon's", one of Steve Hackett's best instumentals, solo and Genesis material included. The harmonics are genial, and the tone of the guitar is again, very strong and vivid, invoking sunset moods, something very common to this album. And I don't think I can explain "Supper's Ready" well enough to do it justice, but if you have not heard this multi- part suite, you're missing out, especially if you have any hope of living in a better world someday. Some things I will mention: the combination of criticizing organized religion while honoring God himself is pretty unique in rock, at least being as overtly stated as it is here, the rhythm of "Apocolypse in 9/8" is even more complex and probably more difficult to solo over than it sounds, and the ending section "As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs" is without question the best ending to a song and album I've ever heard. An absolute masterpiece.