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TRESPASSGenesisSymphonic Prog4.13 | 2718 ratings |
From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website
| infandouslike |
I didn't hear anything from the previous album to this one until I got the first
Archives box set. By then I had heard every other PG Genesis album, as well as the
two with Hackett after PG left the band. The jump in quality between the first and
second albums of this band is nothing short of astounding. The pastoral qualities of
the material on the first album (the few songs I've heard anyway) is really the only
thing that carries over to this album. The songwriting is miles ahead of everything
they did before it. This is certainly not of the same calibure of the albums that
would follow, but it has a charm and power to it that I always enjoy. Mayhew is no
Collins, but he gets the job done, and Phillips is a fine guitarist who was quite
important to the bands developing sound (he only quit because he was uncomfortable
with live performances). His solo on The Knife would be copied almost note for note
by Hackett (who discarded some of the lesser bits in favor of his own, much more
interesting bits), showing that Phillips was probably just as good as Hackett in
terms of ability.The thing that really sets this apart from future albums is the atmosphere. While the next album certainly retains much of this atmostphere (which wouldn't really dissapear until Selling England), this just seems so.........ancient, is the only word I can think of. It just brings images of Victorian England to my mind and a pastoral feel combined with their budding epic tendencies and dramatic dynamics. I think White Mountain best illustrates this atmosphere for me (The Fountain of Salamcis would be the only other song to come close to this on the next album). But all the songs, save one, are great IMO. The one song that doesn't really do a lot for me is Visions Of Angels. Perhaps it is just too happy or simple for me, I can't really say. It just seems to lack something that all the others have. The highlights, aside from White Mountain, are definetly Stagnation and The Knife. Though The Knife would be given a much more effective treatment live by the next incarnation of the band. But the other tracks are very good as well, with Dusk being a beautiful melencholy pastoral number with a wonderful flute solo and Looking for Someone being a fairly effective combination of their style of the previous album combined with the new, more epic direction. All in all, an excellent album that any fan of early Genesis must have. I would only suggest that this is probably not a good place to start if you have not heard any Gabriel era Genesis. For that, I would probably suggest Genesis Live.
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4/5 |
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