NURSERY CRYME

"Nursery Cryme" is truely a great Genesis album. The band may not be as sophisticated in their sound as in their later albums Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound, but the rawer, harder edges make up for this a lot.

"The Musical Box" is my favorite Genesis song - it's got almost everything from mellow parts to almost metal guitar soloing to a breathtaking emotional climax where Gabriel seems to scream his heart out. All this is wrapped in thoughtful lyrics. Just this song alone makes worth the whole album.

5/5

"For Absent Friends" is a short, quiet piece in between the heavy Musical Box and Return Of The Giant Hogweed. The vocal melodies here are truelly magnificent.

4/5

And then comes "The Return Of The Giant Hogweed". This song's a bit harder to get into, but is great too. Gabriel sings in a raw manner here, but also very plain in the interludish parts. The instrumental sections aren't as great as in other parts, and Gabriel's fluteplay reminds me a bit of Jethro Tull. The piano that comes in near the end sounds really nice, and at the end there are really great second vocals that lift up the song. Nice.

4/5

"Seven Stones" is really put well together - the choruses and verses are repeated each with a different feel to them which adds a bit of variation. Hackett plays some good guitar on here that really gives the song a special ambience, being slightly in the background, yet quite distorted.

4.5/5

With "Harold The Barrel" we hear the story of a "Bognor Resturant Owner" who wants to commit suicide (and succeeds). The line "You Must Be Joking" has a very poppish feel to it, but because it's not sung again right afterwards like I expected, this song's surprising. The Guitar during Plod's chorus wails of Harold's despair, the effects with sound that are used throughout the song are sublime and the pianoplay at the end makes clear what's happened with Harry.

5/5

"Harlequin" has some nice instrument parts and the vocals overall are nice, but nothing special.

3/5

I don't really get all the fuss about "Fountain Of Salmacis". Yes, there are nice parts (especially the rhythm section!) but it's not extraordinary.

4/5