DUKE

The best Genesis album of the 80's! Though it may not be on the same level as some of their 70s albums, it's still a great album I would recommend to any Genesis fan. Duke's Travels and Duke's End are among the best instrumentals they ever did, blending the typical 80s synth-heavy sound perfectly with prog. The first four songs of the album are all great for me, with the opening of Behind the Lines being a very catchy and energetic start to the album. The first average song is Misunderstanding. Not that bad, just not as great as some of the other songs on the album. I'm sure a lot of prog fans would find it too poppy. Heathaze is beautiful song, and I also like Turn It On Again. It seems like very few people on this site like it, but I think it's a very catchy song, certainly one of their better pop songs. Cul-de-Sac is another song I like a lot, it really builds up to a majesty-sounding chorus.. The only two songs that I tend to skip are Alone Tonight and Please Don't Ask. Their boring songs quite frankly, but the way I see it is the album is still about 48 minutes without those two tracks, which is still a good length (in fact, Close to the Edge by Yes is only about 38 minutes). So for me, it doesn't bring down how much I like this album too much. The album cover is a little simplistic, being a typical 80s looking cover. It would have been more relevant if they kept the idea of doing the "Duke Suite", that way the man on the cover could be Duke himself. But it still looks a lot better than say "Abacab".

A good album! I wouldn't recommended it as your first album by Genesis (try Selling England, Foxtrot, or A Trick of the Tail instead), but I think all fans of the band should buy it. You might be surprised how much you like it.