Genesis United Kingdom
"The Good, Bad and the Average
The Good: Firth of Fifth and The Cinema Show
While these two songs are very solid, they do not make this album a masterpiece. "Firth of Fifth" is the third song and showcases some nice instrumentation in the way of keyboards early and guitar late. Banks and Hackett showcase their skills rather nicely in this song and the overall effect is impressive. "The Cinema Show" is an epic which weaves a nice story with a melody that never bores or gets old. The whole band contributes nicely with Gabriel doing some emotive singing which adds some texture to the work.
The Average: Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, I Know What I Like, More Fool Me, After the Ordeal
"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" starts off well but seems to drag about midway through the song. In my humble opinion, it is long only for the sake of being long. Good progressive rock songs should capture your attention and not let go. This song just doesn't do that for me. After about three minutes, I am ready for the next song, which is..."I Know What I Like" has a catchy melody and is fun to sing along with, but it does not grab my imagination. So while I am glad that the day has broken on the "Moonlit Knight" with this song, I am already looking ahead to the aforementioned "Firth of Fifth". "More Fool Me" showcases Collins' vocals nicely. But other than that, it is a pretty forgettable love (pop?) song which really slows the pace coming in right after "Firth of Fifth." "After the Ordeal" is basically an intermission piece stuffed between the two eleven-minute epics on this disc. It is so forgettable in this position that I can't even think of anything to say about it.
The Bad: The Battle of Epping Forest, Aisle of Plenty
My primary gripe with this album comes in the form of "The Battle of Epping Forest." This is a goofy song that is almost painful for me to listen to. Gabriel seems to have fun with the various vocal jokes that he pulls off when performing this song. But I would much prefer to hear him do the Slippermen than this mess. �
The song begins with a march beat and flutes and turns into a musical brawl of epic (pun most certainly intended) proportions. Hackett does insert a few fun little guitar riffs, but this song could just as easily be mistaken for a disco tune (in certain parts) as it could for progressive rock. "Aisle of Plenty" is basically a 90 second reprise of the opening of the album with Gabriel adding some non-sensical utterances as the album closes. I'm not sure why the band felt the need to end the album this way, but there it is. A disappointing closure to an otherwise decent album.
Overall
I like Genesis and I like this album. So while I would recommend it, I feel I should point out its flaws with this review. The good songs are good enough to carry this album, but I can't for the life of me say that this is a masterpiece of progressive music. I much prefer Genesis' next effort in The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway."
"While there is some very good music on this album, I just don't see it as being amazing as most prog enthusiasts will tell you . I refuse to agree with the majority that "Supper's Ready"� is one of the best epics ever. In my opinion, it's dull and offers very little substance� both lyrically and musically. I think that "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" is the highlight� of the album, with "Time Table" and "Horizons" offering some good stuff in smaller� packages. "Watcher of the Skies" kicks things off and is the poster child for the mellotron, but otherwise doesn't do much for me. It starts off slowly and never� seems to go anywhere. "Get 'em Out By Friday" is fun and is a nice change of pace on� this album. While I like this album, I cannot in good conscience say it is one of the best ever . Ho-hum."
"Don't be scared of this album. The lyrics can be deconstructed in a couple of different ways. Exploring identity and the choices we make in life is the simple one but there are many references to classic literature as well. In all probability, like a David Lynch film, there can be many meanings to many people. I don't think you could ever describe it as difficult or ambiguous though and aside from the improvisation of 'The Waiting Room' the album defines the art of the concept ideology in a way that releagates Topographic Oceans to skimming the surface.
Don't get me wrong Topographic Oceans is a 10/10 album but obviously pretentious. The Lamb is the godfather of punk in it's realism. Look at the imagery and tell me PG wasn't 4/5 years ahead of his time with the RAEL depiction.
Side 4 is my preferred returning point with Colony of Slippermen, Riding The Scree, In The Rapids being possibly my favourite section of music of all time."
"Live video documenting Genesis' "Turn it on again" tour. Starts out rather shaky with a very weak version of "Turn it on again", but after "no Son of Mine" things start to roll. Especially the longer songs and medleys work well and even some of the ghastly pop tunes from the late 80s are actually quite decent in the live versions on this DVD."
"Generally a great live DVD which brilliantly captures how good Phil Collins was at interacting with the audience. Most of the songs are very well performed, although some a a bit weak... and perhaps Mike Rutherford should have stuck to his bass in stead of the guitar, but nevermind that. It's also interesting to note that the longer semi-progressive songs of the Genesis of the 80s work much better live than the shorter ones."
"This is, in my book at least, the first really poppy album from Genesis, "Duke" being generally proggish and "Abacab" being in many ways too minimalistically weird to be considered pop proper. "Genesis" contains a lot of tunes that don't appeal much to me, which doesn't mean that they are objectively bad tunes of course. There are, nonetheless, four really great tunes on this one, "Mama" with its dark athmosphere and slow build-up being the most iconic one. While not super comple, "Home by the Sea - Second Home by the Sea" is nonetheless a long tune, which contains lots of interesting musical elements, really weird lyrics and quite catchy vocals. Lastly, there's the forgotten gem "Silver Rainbow" which is almost fairy-tale-like musically. I'd say these four songs are worth buying the whole album for."
"Criticized by many as being Genesis' worst album ever, "Abacab" actually isn't that bad - there's actually only one bad song on it. The album's minimalistic but this seems almost experimental given the otherwise complex music Genesis had produced up until that point."
"Like all good prog, the first time I listened to this album, I scratched my head and thought "What the heck is this crap?!?" And though I still haven't figured out what all the crap on this album is, I have grown to appreciate the music enough to give The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway a very high rating.
It seems that most hardcore Genesis fans have a hard time liking The Lamb compared to Foxtrot, Selling England, etc. However, I much prefer this album. I am a sucker for concept albums (even if I don't always understand exactly what the concept is). There are so many unforgettable passages in this two-disc experience beginning with the opening piano solo.
While I do recognize that the album isn't perfect due to some "less than musical" moments ("The Waiting Room" and "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats"), there are so many great tunes packaged in The Lamb that it would be wrong for me to give this anything less than an Excellent rating. Songs such as "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", "In the Cage", "The Carpet Crawlers", "Lilywhite Lilith", "Anyway", "The Lamia", "The Colony of Slippermen" and "It" are all great songs. Some of them are haunting in their solemn melodies and some are thought-provoking with their anguished lyrics, but all are great music, in my opinion.
I highly recommend this album."
"Apart from "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (which is too long/weird/rambling for many people) this is often cited as the best album of Genesis's prog-rock period. Indeed for most of this album they are on fine form. It starts starkly with Peter Gabriel's unaccompanied voice singing "can you tell me where my country lies" , continuing with some lovely resonant layers of guitar, and more firmly English-themed lyrics. "I Know What I Like" is an entertaining but silly single. "Firth of Fifth" is another great symphonic prog-rock piece. Tony Banks's solo piano introduction sets the scene for the song which builds gradually towards Steve Hackett's gloriously lyrical guitar solo. Its one weakness is in the vague and rambling lyrics.
However the album is spoiled by "The Battle of Epping Forest". Peter Gabriel playing a series of Cockney gangsters in silly voices, to an uninteresting tune, is OK for 2 minutes but not for a whole 11, please. This is appropriately followed by the mellow, pleasing instrumental "After the Ordeal", while "More Fool Me" is a throwaway ballad for Phil to practice his limp singing style for the future... "The Cinema Show" starts off with gentle layers of 12-string guitars and flutes, the typical Genesis sound again, and continues through the brief mellow song to an extended, but tasteful, band jam. The short coda consists of Gabriel reciting a 70's English grocery price list "seventeen-and-a-half p..." in layered vocals to a reprise of the opening tune."
"quot;Foxtrot" feels the most consistent and coherent of all the early Genesis albums, and a good place for newcomers to start. It really shows how Genesis were the restrained, tasteful side of the prog rock scene, as opposed to the excesses of Yes and ELP. Melody is clearly the most important thing here, they were never into too-many-notes complexity or instrumental wankery.
Most famously, or notoriously, this contains the side-long track "Supper's Ready". This is just a series of short episodes connected loosely by instrumentals. From the gentle 12-string guitar of the opening tune, to the symphonic "Apocalypse" finale, this sums up most of the qualities that are either liked or disliked about early Genesis. The most irritating bit is of course "Willow Farm" - it's a fun enough Beatles-style piano tune, but Peter Gabriel's unbearably cute stream-of-consciousness rambling is hardly "I Am the Walrus".
The other classic track is "Watcher of the Skies" - which epitomises all that's best about symphonic rock. Tony Banks's grandiose Mellotron keyboard intro soon gives way to an infectious bass rhythm in an off-beat 6/4. The song sontinues with some great dynamics and quirky twists.
The camp Englishness of many of the lyrics is the only major annoyance of this album, and I find they can be ignored in favour of the mellow tunes. "Time Table" is a pleasant enough folk tune, and behind the hideous title of "Can-Utility" lurks a decent song with some fine instrumental interplay. "Get 'Em Out By Friday" is a bit more weak, the silly story doesn't really have a strong enough tune to back it up. It's a shame that Steve Hackett's beautiful acoustic guitar solo "Horizons" only goes on for a minute."
