At the age of 15, this was my favourite album. I couldn't conceive of anything more magical than this, and I treasured my vinyl copy. I obsessed about Genesis, and never really rationalised why Gabriel would leave such a perfect band.
I'm nearly 50 years older - perhaps I can now approach this with a little more balance.
Has it stood up? Well, Watcher Of The Skies, opening with a mellotron struggling to stay in tune, soon bursts into a sci-fi prog epic, with lots of odd time signature breaks for the pounding guitars and Gabriel's storytelling. Timetable, by contrast, is a gentle song, with little prog value beyond its "weren't medieval days glorious and brave" theme, for me it's the weakest thing on the album.
Get 'Em Out By Friday, is a little dystopian future vignette, which despite its silliness, has a certain appeal with its theatrical performance. But my favourite from the first half, is Can - Utility And The Coastliners, a retelling of the Canute tale, but including most prog tropes in a fairly compact six minutes.
The second half is dominated by the genesis Meisterwerk, Supper's Ready, but let's not forget Steve Hackett's lovely acoustic guitar piece Horizons, often dismissed as the intro to it's more famous big brother. But, of course, Supper's Ready is the main course (Supper, of course, being the main evening meal for these Old Carthusians, not the piece of toast with a cup of cocoa for the rest of us).
A supposed re-telling of the Book of Revelation, or something, it's a 23 minutes of fun that I never tire of, from the gentle opening guitar driven song, via the louder nonsense (Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man? Really?), odd time signature marches and a glorious finale, frequently referenced later in the band's career..
It's still probably my favourite Genesis album, even if can see the warts and overblown nonsense I couldn't at 15. A great album.
4* - probably Genesis' finest moment.
Comentários