GENESIS

The Genesis pop-rock adventure continues. I'll start by admittting that I am quite fond of this album because Mama and Home By the Sea were the first songs I'd ever heard from Genesis back in '88 and I was impressed. Well, I was a teenager then but still to this day, I enjoy these two songs a lot.

Genesis 1983 album is indeed an improvement compared to 1981 Abacab; I don't think I'm making a mistake by saying that the pop songs of Genesis sound much better than the ones on Abacab. And Genesis is a very "catchy" album. Many people called this album "clever pop"; I partially agree, but compared to other 80s pop releases, Genesis albums are far superior IMHO (that's why I call 80s Genesis albums "pop-rock").

Let's see what went well and what went wrong with Genesis 1983: the opener Mama is one of the greatest post-Duke songs, I've always liked Tony Banks keyboards on this one;That's All is a pop track but very enjoyable and catchy (both keyboards and guitar sound quite nice). Home by the Sea and Second Home by the Sea are the highlights of the album; one of my favourite Genesis (trio) songs - it's proggy and the instrumental part is impressive indeed (IMO). Now here comes my problem: the poppy Illegal Alien - it's the song I like least on this album, it's even worse than Invisible Touch (song). Things get a little bit better with Taking It All too Hard, an enjoyable nice ballad and Just a Job to Do - not my favourite but a good pop-rock song. Silver Rainbow is another song I like a lot - again I love the keyboards here. Same situation with the closing track It's Gonna Get Better - nice keyboards. Tony Banks has never ceased to amaze me. It's the only reason I listen to the 80s albums (and 90s) once in a while.

The 1983 Genesis album may not be essential to your prog-rock collection, but still deserves a chance because it's a great pop-rock album. Anyway, the two parts Home By the Sea song is one good reason one should give this album a try - prog-rock fans or not.