GENESIS

As with anything post-Abacab, you shouldn't really come here expecting lush symphonic prog of the sort Genesis turned out in their golden era - but at this stage their new pop approach was still very much coloured by art rock textures. The duo of Home By the Sea and Second Home By the Sea is not only the sort of song which the material on Duke tended to point to, but is also flat out creepy; sure, maybe they were selling out at this point, but they're selling out in a decidedly odd fashion! I can do without the comedy accents on Illegal Alien but otherwise this is a solid art- pop album which should be approached with that in mind.

If you like 1980s pop rock, it's a decent album - if you're just here for the prog, though, you should pass this up and tackle Marillion's Script For a Jester's Tear instead, seeing how it came out in the same year and was much more committed to keeping the prog flame alive than Genesis were at this point.