TRESPASS

I loved this album long before I was properly introduced to prog. I loved this album before I even knew there was something called prog. All by accident, I bought this album even though I listened mostly to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, and I really enjoyed it. It would take over a year before I began to like any other Genesis album, that album would turn out to be "From Genesis to Revelation". But that's a different story.

I gave this album five stars because, after getting more used to the rest of the band's discography and the genre in general, I feel that this piece has something very unique about it. It is prog, but if you do not know what prog is, it doesn't sound too strange. It is easy to listen to on one level, yet still entertaining and interesting for the more demanding, experienced listener.

"Looking For Someone" opens the album with a perfect blend of pure emotion and pure power. I can see that this track influenced their later compositions like "Musical Box" and "Can Utility and the Coastliners". The lyrics are great, but what I like most about this song is not Peter's emotion, it's how the instrumental passages fit together and how the whole song just flows as you listen to it. For a band to accomplish something like this on their second album is extremely impressive.

The album then moves into my personal favorite, "White Mountain". This must be the prime example of what I was talking about two paragraphs ago, it is easy to listen to for the first time (it was for me anyways) but when it grabs you it never lets go. And I mean never. Of course I haven't kept coming back to this album every day or so while discovering other music, but it simply doesn't matter how many times I've heard this song, it never gets boring. Tony's organ sound on this song is enough to give it at least 4 stars! I love how they deliver a combination of a great story expressed in an interesting way, an interesting yet accessible soundscape and a progress that flows even better than the previous song, which is an amazing achievement.

"Visions of Angels" then... well, it couldn't get better, after "White Mountain", but this is still an extremely well-written and interesting song. It does keep the same mood as the previous songs, which I think is a good thing in this case. This album has a rather coherent mood and while I can't really explain why I think too much change from this mood would have hurt the album. Even though it is not a concept album I would argue that it requires this coherent mood to glue the songs together. This makes the album a very nice piece to enjoy as a whole, again either on a shallow or deep level.

"Stagnation" continues in the same mood, with a slightly more "floaty" feeling, drifting away not only in time but also in soundscape. The perfect direction for the album in my opinion. Instead of giving the album a dose of energy, which I guess many bands would have done at this point, Genesis choose to continue with the dreamy organ pads and emotional vocals. What's interesting here is that the song actually changes many times, both in dynamics, tempo and sound picture. It doesn't stagnate (pun intended) at all, yet the changes are not there to disrupt the listener, rather to keep the interest there with minimal conscious effect on the listener.

"Dusk" is a shorter track which ends the dreamy part of this album, though it doesn't prepare you much for what is to come. It features some great guitar work, and of course the perfect sound picture that is standard for this amazing band.

Enter "The Knife". Now at the end of the album, Genesis decide that it's time to wake up. I like this, they could have faded it out on another Stagnation without any problem but this works as well. They could have placed this song in the middle of the album also, that would have destroyed alot imo. With this setlist one can enjoy the album as a whole, and then make the change into "The Knife" and after that there is nothing. It feels much more natural, even though this song frankly doesn't fit that well in with the rest. Nevertheless it is a very strong track, with great powerful organ riffs and interesting lyrics with a sarcastic political message.

This album is extremely hard to compare with anything imo, it is a rather unusual album even for a group that only did unusual albums (up until Trick of the Tail at least). I'd like to say though that is not only a masterpiece of progressive rock, it is also a masterpiece of music in general. I would recommend this album to anyone, while I might be wasting my time recommending "Pawn Hearts" to someone who listens to pop for example. It is strange at times, but the strangeness hides from the unexperienced listener in a very pleasant way, jumping out at you first after a few listens.