...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

The first thing you notice like a slap in your face when you listen to this album is the absence of the prodigious guitar touch of Steve Hackett. Peter Gabriel's departure was something bad. Steve's was a disaster. Not only because of guitars, but also because the progressive nature of the band would slowly fade away in this album and the next and would completely dissapear in 'Abacab'. But that is another story. However, this album and its follower would still keep some decency, and even I consider "Duke" the closest record in terms of quality to those previous to this point, since, although Mike Rutherford's guitar work is only average, he still plays the bass well, Tony Banks still takes his duties seriously and Phil Collins still plays his drums very well (and in some cases even better than before)

The present album is probably the weakest of the two preceeding 'Abacab', probably because the band is a bit disoriented, Phil Collins' mainstream nature is quite present and some songs are too corny and melancholic.

The best tracks we can find, at least for me, are "Down and out" (where we can find clearly that Steve is missing, though), which keeps some kind of energy, specially with Tony Banks playing the organ. "Ballad of Big" is similar to the previosly mentioned one, and "Burning Rope","Scene's from a Night's Dream" and "Many too many" have good moments, being more or less mellow.

The rest of the album is quite weak, with a sad lack of inspiration and it shows the well known Phil's tendency for ballads. He is not a bad balladist, but these are not of his best.

As a final mention,"Follow you, follow me" is not a song I dislike much, but it is clear it was thought to make this album sell. And it did. You can consider it as one of the 'good Genesis mainstream songs' as I call them.