genesis (abacab)

It served its purpose (especially Me and Sarah Jane).

grantman wrote: Upon listening for the 4 th time i discovered not without a couple of duds ,for a Canadian guy raised on prog,this is not really a terrible record ,the opener for one is a very strong heavy metal vibe or punk style song .Later the the songs i find most appealing is ME AND SARAH JANE ,NO REPLY AT ALL as for DODO/LURKER although kinda silly is well constructed ,my fav has got to be KEEP IT DARK the duds for me was THE MAN ON THE CORNER ,LIKE IT NOT which i feel belongs on a phil collins solo works ,the worst was of course WHODUNNIT ,any other thoughts please share. thank you for reading grant

Great production and pretty original material for the time; probably their cleanest, best sounding recording.

decent album

Edited by Cristi - September 01 2017 at 17:25

A mixed bag of Crossover Prog and a couple of duds (I'm looking at you, Who Dunnit ?). Another Record started out promising, but got bland very quickly. The rest of the tunes I don't mind, to varying degrees. Dodo/Lurker being very good, quirky even.
My rating :
Abacab - 4
No Reply At All - 2.5
Me And Sarah Jane - 4
Keep It Dark - 4
Dodo/Lurker - 4
Who Dunnit ? - 0
Man On The Corner - 3
Like It Or Not - 3
Another Record - 1
25.5 out of 45 = roughly 57 %. Barely a 3 star album, but some good stuff here and there, let down by a few 'clunkers'.

Edited by Tom Ozric - September 01 2017 at 22:08

I saw them at the Showerings pavilion in Shepton mallet in Somerset in September 1982; I remember that pretty much every time the played a pre '& then there were three' track, Phil would say 'this is the last time we are going to play this sh*t'... but it was a good show and they finished with 'Suppers ready'.. It stuck in my throat at the time but looking back I guess they were bored with playing older tracks when they felt they were on the verge of making new, shiny and more streamlined music. In hindsight, its all part of their legacy and it was just of the time. The lp is to me, as much of a period piece as their earlier work and has a much more direct, 'worked out live as a 3 piece in the studio' feel and certainly reminds me of my life at the time. There are some good tracks and some duff tracks but I feel that the fact that the 2 best tracks from the lp sessions, Submarine and Naminanu, ended up as 'B' sides shows that although they still had prog- fusion tendencies, they preferred to keep it hidden away!

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I think Duke and even ATTWT are more consistent but it's certainly not the terrible album it's sometimes made out to be. I think even the so called duds such as "another record" and "who dunnit" are fun to listen to. It's sort of like the little brother to Duke in the same way that Big Generator is to 90125 or that the Final Cut is to the Wall. :) There are even some full on prog songs like the title track and Dodo/lurker. Other than that mostly quirky pop. I think they were influenced by solo Peter Gabriel at the time and maybe even XTC.

^ It's Gonna Get Better is quite a decent tune, though Phil can be cringe-inducing with his falsettos.
I prefer s/t over Abacab too.

Abacab is their best post Hacket album.

It's as good as Duke ad better than what came after. If anyone recalls my dissing of Duke, that's not saying much. The second half of the title track was very good. I agree with David that it was their cleanest, best sounding recording.