DUKE

If we are talking about Genesis from an strictly progressive point of view, this record was the end of the road. Completely. This album (like probably the previous one) is a progressive album with mainstream moments, whist the following ones were mainstream albums with progressive moments. While "And then there were Three" was a kind of gray record, this one was a clear improvement, being probably the best record Genesis ever released as a three-member band. And if they had chose to follow a similar road taken with this album probably the critics of classic fans would have been less harsh with them (or so I think).

In this record we find Tony Banks at his finest stage in my opinion and Phil Collins performs my favourite passages of drums from Genesis in this album as well. Mike Rutherford plays his bass without getting much attention and also didn't give guitars an star role, saving certain passages.

"Behind the lines" is a good presentation with an excellent instrumental baseline that we can listen as well in "Duke's end". Phil Collins vocal style is not very bright here, as it would happen in future records, but overall the song is good. "Duchesse" is one of the strong points of the album. It is a smooth, solid and cohesive song, with dreamy atmospheres almost 20 years before the expression 'chill out' would be used in the world of music. It also tells a beautiful story related with the somewhat conceptual background of the album. "Guide vocal" is a short and beautiful miniballad with a paragraph to be repeated later in another song. "Man of our times" is another good song with a mostly instrumental nature and where Phil Collins' voice is also a bit unnecessary but doesn't mess the final result. Good synthesizer loops by Anthony here (and by the way, why the... he decided to change the synths he used here for the crappy ones he used in "Abacab"?, I simply fail to understand it). "Misunderstanding" is one of the mainstream songs we can find, although it is probably the best one, along with "Please don't ask". "Heathaze" is another soft ballad in the lines of "Guide Vocal", although longer. It is, like most of the album, very piano based. "Turn it on again" is another mainstream song which gives me mixed feelings. It is, on one hand, a typical 80s Phil Collins' song (irritating at times, specially at the end), but on the other hand, Tony Banks doesn't perform bad either. "Alone again" is the worst song of the album for me. It is a simply insubstantial ballad like the ones that would follow in other records. "Cul-de-sac" is another sister of "Guide Vocal" and Heathaze", being probably the most serious and solid of the three. "Please don't ask me" is another ballad, although this one is well performed, with an elegant vortex of synths and piano, and even Phil's vocal style is correct here. And the best for the end. "Duke's travels" is the strongest track of the record, and probably one of the best since "Wind and Wuthering" times. The syth loops here are simply amazing (I insist with my previous question). Phil repeats "Guide vocal"'s paragraph at the end of this song as well. "Duke's end" proves that keeping this track only would have been enough, no "Behind the lines" needed I guess

Then, as I mentioned at the beginning of the review, this was the final chapter for classic Genesis. What would come from here would be another (bittersweet) story.