SMALLCREEP'S DAY

Mike Rutherford's debut solo release is a very ambitious and artistically successful album. It doesn't sound a lot like Genesis in general, but you can definintely tell that he was the one who wrote "Deep In the Motherlode", "Man of Our Times", and some of "Duke's Travels." The band he assembled for this album is very tight, including Anthony Phillips on keys, who's keys here have a very distinct color to them, and even showing vituostic skiil on the fast- paced "Working In Line." Simon Phillips (drums) and Morris Pert (percussion) take the prog- pop sound of the songs to a slightly left-(on the side of prog)-of-center side of the spectrum, and Noel McCalla's vocals are very strong and operatic, esepecially on the vivdly atmospheric "Between the Tick and the Tock", where his voice changes envelope in unison with Phillips' dramatically swelling mellotron chords. I had the version that ends with the side- long suite, and I imagine that's the best sequence, as the surprisingly dark mood of the suite's intro after hearing the five songs before it that are all excellent but slightly more rock than the other side gives a good effect to the telling of the story. Every track is excellent, but there are a few standouts for me, including the opening rocker "Moonshine", the expansive "Time and Time Again" (another moment of great bravado for Noel McCalla) and the great-synth- riffed "Cats and Rats (In This Neighborhood)." Not to say that songs like the very progressively arranged "Romani" or "Overnight Job" (with some of Rutherford's best soloing) aren't without their many merrits, either, though: in fact any song off this album alone shows Rutherford's strong and orginaly songwriting skills and would have fit in nicely on any Genesis album of it's time or any other of his solo albums.