And Then There Were Three: Genesis

Kati wrote: I  do not what to say here above to be honest. this seems fruitless. The Wall and Animals is Waters and wow pros and cons of hitchhiking plus amused to death, these, two of my overall best albums to date!

About Animals, it IS one of my favourite PF albums (No 2, or perhaps even tied at No 1 with Wish you Were Here)... however, even though the band members themselves have spoken about how Waters control over the band was tightening by then, I don't totally buy the idea that it was an album totally dominated by him... yet. Yeah, he is the only writer on almost all the song... but that's almost, and thee one song he shares credits is Dogs, which takes almost half the time of the album, and for me is the very best song on the album, and as far as I understand musically was mainly a Gilmour song (but as often happens with Pink Floyd, Waters gets a share of the writing credits on most songs because of the lyrics... so it is difficult to actually know in which songs he actually contributed to the music). As for The Wall... it's a great album in it's own merit, but it's still a step down from the previous albums for me, and indeed the best song in it for me is Comfortably Numb... once again, co-written with Gilmour (suposedly once again, the music being mainly by him). As for Waters solo albums, they do have some really nice songs, but it shows he needed some help to make them really great albums (except for Amused to Death, which is indeed his best solo album... but even that one has a few weaker songs... and in some guitar solos, I really wish Gilmour had been there to make them really special).

I think ATTWT is pretty much excellent overall. The year is 1978, and having discovered this album (and the following few I mention) sometime throughout 1988, along with Yes, ELP, etc. I think that they still portray an essence of 'true Prog' within their approach. I firmly, don't believe that 'shorter songs' necessarily equate to less Prog. I think it's just a gradual slide into what was 'required' by the demands of the masses. Adaptation seems to be the excuse, and it definitely would've been difficult for amazing musicians to come to terms with this trend.   None of us were in a successful band during this time, therefore, who can blame them for morphing into what us Progheads deem 'sellout'.......?

^Yeah, I hate Afterglow, by the way. But I just listened to it (ATWT) again. The vocals are terribly ponderous. I like some of the timbres from the keyboards, but that's about it. Boredom is what I greet it with, I'm afraid. There are bits of interesting stuff, but it's always bits, not unlike what you get from a lot of Indie bands today. Knowing your delight for keyboard heavy material I can squint and see some of its appeal for you. As mainly a guitar fan, there isn't much of intrigue in it for me, though.

richardh wrote: HackettFan wrote: ^Yeah, I hate Afterglow, by the way. But I just listened to it (ATWT) again. The vocals are terribly ponderous. I like some of the timbres from the keyboards, but that's about it. Boredom is what I greet it with, I'm afraid. There are bits of interesting stuff, but it's always bits, not unlike what you get from a lot of Indie bands today. Knowing your delight for keyboard heavy material I can squint and see some of its appeal for you. As mainly a guitar fan, there isn't much of intrigue in it for me, though.   Ok but also Collins drumming is amongst some of his best on tracks like Down and Out , Motherlode and Burning Rope   you are right that I tend not to care if guitar is that heavily apparent although I do like Rush and Iron Maiden so its not all keyboard heavy music in my collection

Certainly, I expect we both have some appreciation all instruments (except for cow bell) . Phil's drums are exceptional on this as well as many other albums, I do agree. And whatever the transition, the three musicians do not all of the sudden become untalented just because I don't like any particular part of their output (although Rutherford's lead guitar on that album was very pedestrian). I should have said in my previous post that the album was better than what I had recalled. My most major complaint is the songwriting on that album in my mind is not too good by neither Prog standards nor Pop standards, which is supposed to be their strong point, and that brings us back to the transitional thing.

I think this album had a bad rap for the fact that it produced a single ... period,

Down and Out is one of my  favorite tracks.  Not being a drummer, it seems to be a challenging song for that.  Since I have never seen a clip of Collins playing it live, the Youtube link below shows a worthy effort by this drummer on that song.

Yes, I like it a lot - though I also like everything up until We Can't Dance, so I'm very pro-Genesis in general! 

^ Snowbound.....

everybody SHOULD get on the new Hackett CD - that is AWESOME, with some of the best guitar work I've heard in ages! To lose such a talent was the death knell of genesis and they sank like a stone from the sea of prog as soon as Hackett left, never to return unfortunately !

Dellinger wrote: Kati wrote: I  do not what to say here above to be honest. this seems fruitless. The Wall and Animals is Waters and wow pros and cons of hitchhiking plus amused to death, these, two of my overall best albums to date! About Animals, it IS one of my favourite PF albums (No 2, or perhaps even tied at No 1 with Wish you Were Here)... however, even though the band members themselves have spoken about how Waters control over the band was tightening by then, I don't totally buy the idea that it was an album totally dominated by him... yet. Yeah, he is the only writer on almost all the song... but that's almost, and thee one song he shares credits is Dogs, which takes almost half the time of the album, and for me is the very best song on the album, and as far as I understand musically was mainly a Gilmour song (but as often happens with Pink Floyd, Waters gets a share of the writing credits on most songs because of the lyrics... so it is difficult to actually know in which songs he actually contributed to the music). As for The Wall... it's a great album in it's own merit, but it's still a step down from the previous albums for me, and indeed the best song in it for me is Comfortably Numb... once again, co-written with Gilmour (suposedly once again, the music being mainly by him). As for Waters solo albums, they do have some really nice songs, but it shows he needed some help to make them really great albums (except for Amused to Death, which is indeed his best solo album... but even that one has a few weaker songs... and in some guitar solos, I really wish Gilmour had been there to make them really special).