GENESIS

Genesis is probably, with Pink Floyd, the best known former prog band, among the classic English bands, between the usual listeners of music that aren't linked with the prog rock music. Who doesn't know songs like "Invisible Touch" or "I Can't Dance", if only from the radio? But, has we know, this is only and not even half of the truth. So, who is the band that has been indispensable in the music scene for more than 30 years and is even considered by many the father of the Neo-prog? Of course, this can only be a gross overview but it isn't as far from the true as it seems at a first glance.

"Genesis" is the twelfth studio album of Genesis and was released in 1983. It was so named "Genesis" due to the three band's members have composed together, every songs. It has also been referred as the "Shapes" or "Yellow Shapes" album, because of the front cover. The shapes are taken from "Shape O Toy Ball". As we know, the toy consists of a blue and red hollow ball with different shaped holes cut into the surface, into which the shaped pieces can be inserted.

"Genesis" has nine tracks and all songs were written by Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins. The first track "Mama" was the first single from this Genesis' self-titled album. It remains the band's most successful single in UK. It's easy recognizable for its harsh drum machine introduction which leads into synthesizer musical lines and finally it follows to the Phil Collins' leaden voice. This is an excellent song that retains sufficient quality and credibility, for me, to stands in one of the highlights of the album. The second track "That's All" was the second single taken from this album. This is clearly a Phil Collins' song with all the ingredients to be a successful pop song. The song was written to be a very simple song with a very simple melody. This is a song with a catchy tune and that remains very nice to hear from the beginning to its ending. The third track "Home By The Sea" and the fourth track "Second Home By The Sea" is, in reality, a music suite of two songs. Lyrically, the song is about a burglar who breaks into a house only to find it is a haunted prison. The burglar is captured by the ghosts who forced him to listen to their stories for the rest of his life. Musically, it represents the most progressive musical effort on the album. This is another song in the same line of "Duke's Travels" and "Duke's End" of "Duke" and "Dodo/Lurker" of "Abacab". It confirms the path started by them with their two previous studio albums "Duke" and "Abacab", from the progressive rock to a more commercial pop style approach. Still, these are the best two tracks on the album and the only with some prog lines. The fifth track "Illegal Alien" was also a song released as a single. Lyrically, it represents apparently a lighter humorous song depicting the frustrations of the faces of the illegal immigrants. Musically, this is a very weak song, written in the reggae musical style. In reality, we are in presence of one of the worst and silly songs ever released by the band. This is, without any doubt, with "Who Dunnit?" of "Abacab", the two worst songs of Genesis. The sixth track "Taking It All Too Hard" was another song to be released as a single, this time was the B side of their second single "That's All". It was also released as a single in USA in 1984. This is a very good ballad, clearly with the Phil Collins' mark. It has a nice acoustic guitar and electronic percussion performance, and Phil Collins sings on it with a great emotion. The seventh track "Just A Job To Do" tells the story of a private investigator chasing down his subject. Musically, it's a very good and powerful song with great percussion, good rhythm guitar performance and a nice keyboard work. The eighth track "Silver Rainbow" represents the song released as the B side of their USA single "Taking It All Too Hard". This is another song that confirms the good quality of the album. It's a song with great harmony, nice keyboard lines and a very interesting drum work. The chorus work is also very interesting and nice. This is a song that sometimes reminds me the sound of R.E.M. The ninth and last track "It's Gonna Get Better" was the song chosen to be released as the B side of their first single of the album "Mama". This is a good song, but sincerely, it doesn't represent one of its best musical moments. This is a song that represents a soft, calm and nice way to close this album, but it doesn't represents nothing more than that.

Conclusion: In a certain way, "Genesis" is an album very close to "Abacab". It represents and confirms definitely, with "Duke" and "Abacab", one more step in Genesis' music, from the progressive rock to the pop/rock music. It's true that we can say that it's probably better than "Abacab" is. However, it maintains the same musical formula of it. It has three great songs "Mama" and especially "Home By The Sea" and "Second Home By The Sea", three good songs "Taking It All Too Hard", "Just A Job To Do" and "Silver Rainbow", two less good songs "That's All" and "It's Gonna Get Better" and a bad song "Illegal Alien". I can't see on "Genesis" a much better album than "Abacab" is, or a much worst album than "Duke" is. Sincerely, I can't see on it many of the progressive lines, which it should have. In a certain way, I think they are all very close, musically. All are good albums but with very few progressive lines. It's also a pop/rock album with some old-time splashes of color. So, I'm going to rate "Genesis" with the same 3 stars of the other two albums.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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