Level B
Genres: Progressive Rock, Lush Pop, Synth Pop
Description Coming Soon as the page progesses
Record Rating: 7 / General Rating: 11
Best Song: THE MUSICAL BOX
The Musical Box ; / For Absent Friends; / General Rating:The Return Of The Giant Hogweed; / Seven Stones; / Harold The Barrel ; / Harlequin; / The Fountain Of Salmacis ;
Yawn... I don't want to sit here and give a dissertation on this PROGRESSIVE ROCK album Nursery Cryme by Gentle Giant. Basically, in between "The Musical Box" and "The Fountain of Salmacis" it's mostly borrrrrring. The shorter songs are ok. Nothing really to phone home about. "For Absent Friends" features Phil, but only for about a minute and a half, so don't worry! "The Return Of The Giant Hogweed" is bouncy fun, but doesn't go much anywhere, IMHO. The instrumental passages pretty much stick to the same ol routines. "Harold The Barrel" is probably the most non-boring of them all. But don't worry, it'll get better, as Genesis further rocks out their progressive rock making machine. And that's all I'll say, bye!
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*BEST ALBUM* *QUINTESSENTIAL ALBUM*
Record Rating: 10 / General Rating: 14
Best Song: DANCING WITH THE MOONLIT KNIGHT
Dancing With The Moonlit Knight ; / I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) ; / Firth of Fifth ; / More Fool Me ; / The Battle of Epping Forest ; / After The Ordeal; / Cinema Show ; / Aisle Of Plenty;
If there's one thing this album lacks (for the most part) that we saw in Trespass, Nursery Cryme, and Foxtrot it's the boredom. There are very few spots that I could call "boring" on this album. And that's why it wins over the previous three efforts. With those, you had to kind of work into the songs to get into them. But these can be appreciated not just by prog rock gurus, but just about anybody who doesn't want to spend TOO MUCH time diving into a song. The instrumental passages are not boring and tedious, the songs are more diverse and bombastic.
As far as instrumentation goes, Steve Hackett shines on this album. With those famous solos that can be heard in "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" and "Firth of Fifth", with the latter also featuring the very best piano intro by Tony Banks. If only he kept at the piano instead of those painful synths we'll hear later on in the band's career. Phil's drumming is nothing less than superb (he's probably my favorite for drum rolls, just pick up an early Brand X album if you don't agree! Or hell, just listen to THIS album) and he even gets his own song on this album, and it's good . Peter, of course, with the flute, and vocals, and holy moly bombast all over the place.
The lyrics on this album are ripe with humor, pathos, sarcasm, and allegories galore! The first track, "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" probably my favorite Genesis song in their whole catalog. Starts off with a capella, and Peter's vocals working ever so perfectly, and the instruments beautifully striking in at all the right parts, and whoa I don't even know how to describe it. The song just flows incredibly well! Hackett guitars almost seem to be battling Banksynths (Well, the Hackett guitars win in my opinion, but hey, it's all good!). Then it ends with a Rutherford repeating acoustic passage at the end which works well, but may be a little too long. Or not, no biggie! Next, we have the closest thing on here to a hit single, "I Know What I Like", and boy if one thing shines on here it's Phil's drumming... probably the best on the album. This song is also FINALLY an exciting SHORT song by Genesis. After the serious two-minute yawnfests on the past couple albums, this one shows us they can rock out like the rest of 'em! And the lyrics... "Gambling only pays when you're winning"... ha! That gets me every time I hear the song. Seriously. These are probably the two most perfect songs on the album. Even if you can't enjoy the rest of the album, hell, even if you HATE Genesis and Prog rock... there's no denying these are great tracks.
OK, now for the less perfect, but still excellent parts. "Firth of Fifth" probably has some of the most pretentious lyrics out there. (Hey, it was written by Tony Banks, he wrote "One For The Vine" after all, the prog "masterpiece" everyone loves, but I HATE TO DEATH!). But the instrumentation gets me... The WONDERFUL piano passage intro, then repeating it on a synthesizer later. And that famous Hackett guitar solo. Need I say more? Just listen to the damn song! Phil gets his little spot with the quiet, folksy, acoustic "More Fool Me", and he did a good job. He WROTE it!? Yep. Hard to believe. "The Battle of Epping Forest" (with the following "After the Ordeal") is a little confusing with the beginning "military march" style intro, but then it warps into a quirky, funny, and boppy. Not a favorite among fans, but it never gets boring, even if it is long... (er, it's ELEVEN minutes!). "The Cinema Show" I like somewhat... it doesn't move me or anything like most of the previous tracks did. But it's a nice little listen every once in a while. Heck, there is nothing on here WORTH knocking though. There's boredom, but hey, get past it, and you can ENJOY the best progressive rock album in the history of progressive rock history!
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Record Rating: 8 / General Rating: 12
Best Song: A TRICK OF THE TAIL
Dance On A Volcano ; / Entangled ; / Squonk; / Mad Man Moon ; / Robbery, Assault, And Battery; / Ripples ; / A Trick Of The Tail ; / Los Endos
Well, Peter Gabriel is out, and when all hope is lost for Genesis, they decide to hire their... own drummer? Phil Collins? as the lead vocalist??? Strange, indeed. And so begins the journey of Phil the Pill from a great prog rock drummer to a lame AOR singer. But hey, none of that is on THIS record! Banks makes more of a name for himself, and the arrangements are not much to phone home about. The writing and composition is handled mostly by Banks and Rutherford, while Hackett is not even really audible here, but he still shows himself more than on Wind and Wuthering.
"Dance On A Volcano" is a pumping, anthemic rocker... "Entangled" has probably the silliest arrangement, but the crescendo at the end (Did Tony have a SAW synthesizer or something???) gets me everytime. "Squonk" is a fun anthem, albeit a bit overlong. Much of this stuff is overlong. Alot of the songs could have easily been shortened a couple of minutes, or use the time for a few Hackett solos I'm starting to miss so much now! "Robbery, Assault, and Battery" is very... British in a "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" kind of way (of course, nowhere near as good as THAT song!) alot of fun, nevertheless. "Mad Man Moon" is WAAAAAY longer than it needs to be. Let's limit the sappy Phil-style ballads to 3 or 4 minutes, please! "A Trick Of The Tail" is well, the shortest one, and probably for that reason, the best song. It's catchy, gets its point across, done! "Ripples" is a nice ballad, and even at 8 minutes long it works, but geez, like I said about "Mad Man Moon", just shut up already! "Los Endos" is an instrumental I can't complain about... good little jazzy influences there.
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Record Rating: 3 / General Rating: 7
Best Song: YOUR OWN SPECIAL WAY
Eleventh Earl of Mar ; / One For The Vine ; / Your Own Special Way ; / Wot Gorilla? ; / All In A Mouse's Night; / Blood On The Rooftops ; / Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers ; / In That Quiet Earth ; / Afterglow;
This blows. Forget it. Mr. Banks totally slaughters this one. Crowding every nook, every cranny, every melody, every square inch of this album with poisonous Banksynths. Where is Hackett? He is hardly audible on this album. Probably the reason why he left after this. It seemed to me that Banks wanted total control over this album. Anyway, I could bitch about how detrimental he was to the band (Even more than Mr. Collins. Boy, am I gonna be guillotined for that one!)... but it's time for the review.
Let's do this SONG BY SONG. YAY!
"Eleventh Earl of Mar": Good... more like the stuff on A Trick of the Tail. At least Banks doesn't suffocate us with synths.
"One For The Vine": Worst song on the album. Why does everybody like it? The lyrics are pretentious, stupid, cliched... Forget the arrangement. Simply boring as hell. It just drags on and on, and stupid Banksynths everywhere of course.
"Your Own Special Way": Probably the strongest song on the album. Good acoustics, Great booming chorus. Probably what inspired Collins to do AOR crap, but I can't discount it for that. It's wonderful.
"Wot Gorilla?": Bzzt. Clkk. What is the point here? This is stupid and makes me sleepy... zzzzzzzzZZZZzZzZzZz <-- see?
"All In A Mouse's Night": Unmemorable, if anything. Not horrible.
"Blood On the Rooftops": Hackett (at least he did SOMETHING), and Collins composition. Holy crap! A GUITAR! After listening to the last few songs, I almost forgot they existed. Banks plays a mellotron instead of a dumb synth. At least it's SINCERE, unlike "One For The Vine".
"Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers" and "In That Quiet Earth": God, these instrumentals are getting on my nerves! Did they just do these to fill up space? They seem to serve NO purpose at all. If you're going to do an instrumental, make it mean something... don't just make it sit there and noodle around.
"Afterglow": Mediocre closer on the album. Two note melody... It's a little emotional, I guess, but not good.
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Record Rating: 6 / General Rating: 10
Best Song: DODO/LURKER
Abacab ; / No Reply At All; / Me And Sarah Jane; / Keep It Dark; / Dodo/Lurker ; / Who Dunnit?; / Man On The Corner; / Like It Or Not; / Another Record;
Well well well, our old pals Phil, Tony, Mike, and Pee-Wee Herman are back with a little bitty record of progress... wait, this shit isn't prog? It's POP! What the fuck, and dancey pop too. What the hell happened? Are they gay or something? No, actually... this is one little entertaining record, full of catchy melodies, silly lyrics, and bounciness abound. But not brainless.
Anyway, this is Abacab, which got its name from when Mike and Tony were playing around, and Tony shoves an abacus up Mike's ass while he was saying "What are you doing with that abac...AB!!!!". That's true, and I'm always right, right? Anyway, the title track is a really pumping 7 minute number, with a kooky chorus, and senseless lyrics, but who cares? The last 4 or so minutes of jamming are nice too. "No Reply At All" features EWF horns and ironic lyrics for an upbeat song like it. "Dodo/Lurker" is 7 and a half minutes long, and the closest thing to a prog song on here, a rather biting composition (e.g. 'Fish he got a hook in his throat/Fish he got problems') about "Dodo", and a goofy part at the end about the "Lurker". "Me And Sarah Jane" is nice, great melody, dumb lyrics too.
The major point of controversy with this thing probably lies with "Who Dunnit?" which is regarded by many as a stupid, annoying, repetitive, electro-techno crapfest. Well, it's ok to me. It's annoying, it's stupid, but the silliness overshadows the stupid, and I like silly, so pbbbbbt! And this record almost embodies the silly factor in Genesis.
"Keep It Dark" can take this job and shove it. I hate that song! The composition is ok, but the murky instrumentation blows it for me. The rest of the stuff is pretty even. "Man On The Corner", Phil's "philosophical" contribution, is utterly boring and forgettable. "Like It Or Not" is equally forgettable. And "Another Record" is at least nostalgic. But those are small dents in an otherwise fun album.
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Record Rating: 7 / General Rating: 11
Best Song: THAT'S ALL
Mama ; / That's All ; / General Rating:Home By The Sea; / Second Home By The Sea; / Illegal Alien; / Taking It All Too Hard; / Just A Job To Do; / Silver Rainbow ; / It's Gonna Get Better
Well, first things first. This album is pop. Pure pop. But it's great pop! Probably the best album out of the Genesis pop era. I'll simply go through the highlights... "Mama", while not very catchy, is eerily similar to Collins' best song "In The Air Tonight", in that it has a beginning quiet section, the buildup, and some powerful drumming near the end. I had heard that a live drum kit was used to record the part at the end, but I don't think I really noticed any REAL drums. Oh, and not to mention Phil is VERY good at the HA-HAs. "That's All" is probably the best song on the album, and probably the best pop song by Genesis (Next to "I Know What I Like". Simple, catchy, good riffs, not too long. "Home by the Sea" barely makes the highlight list, but I liked the lyrics, and the energy in the song (I'm not including "Second Home By The Sea", which is in my opinion, a lame second-rate synth instrumental which doesn't really tie into the theme of the song at all). "Silver Rainbow" is wonderful... Great lyrics (Try to figure out what it's about!). My favorite parts would be when Phil says "You won't know where you're coming or going" and "Then you know that you are there." Accompanied nicely by a few light Banksynths. Excellent arrangement! "Illegal Alien" Goofy. Maybe a little too goofy, but pure fun is all it is. And that's what these guys liked to do. "Just A Job To Do" is another decent tune. I can't help but like the "with a BANG BANG BANG" then the two drum hits. Of course, we have to end on a high note with the somewhat optimistic "It's Gonna Get Better". A good album all around! Exploiting the fun and creativity synth pop CAN offer when done right.
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Record Rating: 5 / General Rating: 9
Best Song: TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT
Invisible Touch; / Tonight Tonight Tonight ; / Land Of Confusion ; / In Too Deep; / Anything She Does; / Domino; / Throwing It All Away; / The Brazilian;
OK, so now Genesis has officially entered the realm of high production values, overuse of synthesizers, and mega-hit stardom. Now, obviously, this is the point where they realized they could cash in by going pop... and go they did. Probably too far!
First, we have the title track. And well, I guess we can see why it became a hit. It's catchy, poppy, people liked it! Is it good? No. Is it bad? Not really. The lyrics are bad, but the song itself is actually a nice listen, and really a well arranged pop song. But not a highlight. "Throwing It All Away" (which I like) and "In Too Deep" (which I don't like as much) could easily fit well on any Phil Collins solo album... "Tonight Tonight Tonight" is my pick of this album. It might take a few listens to appreciate it's darkness and the instrumentals fit well with the mood. I guess it's a bit of a stretch at almost 9 minutes, but at least none of it is really wasted. My other favorite is "Land of Confusion", another "real" pop song which has a really snazzy chorus. Oh, there was some video too, I guess. "Domino" is your best bet for a pop-prog song, but it's really interesting. The first few minutes greet you with a summery sounding light pop affair, which is suddenly transformed into a hot disco-ish climax. Pretty good, but still, generic. "The Brazilian" is a nice closing instrumental with good use of those wacky drum machines and nice synth waves. While there's not much here that's good, there's not a single song that's bad. A very generic album, if you axe me.
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Record Rating: 3 / General Rating: 7
Best Song: I CAN'T DANCE
No Son of Mine ; / Jesus He Knows Me ; / Driving The Last Spike ; / I Can't Dance ; / Never A Time; / Dreaming While You Sleep; / Tell Me Why; / Living Forever; / Hold On My Heart ; / Way Of The World; / Since I Lost You; / Fading Lights
Hi. I'm not sure why, exactly, but I'm here reviewing Phil Collins' latest album We Can't Da..." Hey, this is GENESIS.... b-b-b-but it sounds like a Phil Collins SOLO ALBUM... well, gee it doesn't LOOK like one. I don't see his ugly fat face on the album cover! Because God knows we want to see it just to remind us "Hey, this is Phil Collins you're listening to!."
Harumph, well, the sad thing is this album has some very very good songs on it. The other sad thing is this album has some very very horrible songs on it. Not only that, this is 1991 Genesis, and we're now in the CD age, so this thing is a WHOPPING SEVENTY-ONE (71) MINUTES LONG!!! Which means they could pointlessly drag out an already stupid song, say "Driving The Last Spike", for a deadly horrible long time, say TEN MINUTES. And make it go nowhere except a few really stupid, annoying, and pointless instrumental passages that make you feel like you're waiting to go take a piss. Except the piss is not relieving, it's burning! Like you have Gonnorhea, or something (Is that the one that makes your pee burn?). Which means they could pad out an already horribly boring song, say "Fading Lights", with the most mind-numbingly stupid bombastic and never-ending long-winded piss-poor instrumental section until it makes you blue in the face. Which also means they can fill this up with songs nobody cares about, that don't really contribute much to the album except take up 5 or 6 minutes on the disc. Hell, Invisible Touch could be the crowning glory of cheesy 80s synth-pop, but they didn't try to muddy it up with so much filler!
"Never A Time" is EERILY similar to "Throwing It All Away", in fact it's the SAME length, uses the SAME instruments, and is written by the SAME guy (Mike Rutherford, BTW)... Stupid political-themed (What's up with these being mostly AMERICAN political themes too? Isn't Genesis a BRITISH band? Why not make fun of Tony Blair or Winston Churchill or something? Geez, they used to do stuff like that. Boy, those were the days) rockers like "Tell Me Why" and "Way Of The World". OK, they're fine, but why do so many of these start off with that three or four drum intro before kicking in with the other instruments? That annoys the heck outta me! Oh, and let's not forget the most brainless of this filler! The syrupy sweet and tastelessly dumb "Hold On My Heart" with its "moody" synths and banal lyrics... and Mike DOES play a guitar on this song (Where Phil bellows out "I Will Be There"... a part that is sure to move hearts, and souls, and my bowels) which I mistook for a horn. I guess they wanted a horn part, but Mike wanted to play in the song, and that was their compromise. Goody.
But hey, let's not be so negative... there ARE some good songs on here. "I Can't Dance" with that groovy, gruff guitar riff. And bottle badoinks and nice drum sequence and stuff. "I can't dance, I can't sing, I'm just standing here sellin' everything". Hey, Phil just summed up his life story in one sentence! Song is very catchy. "No Son of Mine" is a nice pop rocker. Full of emotion and spirit and stuff chicks dig! Oh, and "Jesus He Knows Me"! Televangelists are an easy target, but the lyrics are funny ("Do you believe in God?/Cos that is what I'm sellin'")("You can find me in the phone book/Just call my toll free number")... and the video was even funnier. With Phil and the gang as preachers. Good stuff... but doesn't make up for the massive filler on here. Hell, just download these three songs by themselves (LEGALLY!) and forget the rest of this album, unless you can get the whole album for cheap (I saw it on amazon.com for a PENNY!)
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Record Rating: 6 / General Rating: 10
Best Song: MAMA? Really, pick your favorite studio one! They're all just about the same!
Land Of Confusion; / No Son Of Mine; / Jesus He Knows Me; / Throwing It All Away; / I Can't Dance; / Mama ; / Hold On My Heart ; / That's All; / In Too Deep; / Tonight Tonight Tonight; / Invisible Touch;
The Shorts? As opposed to the Longs. I guess they released two separate albums to please two separate types of fans... anyway, these live performances actually weren't taken from one concert, but from many different ones since 1983. From the Genesis catalog, we get "Mama", which is done nicely, where Phil gets to do his creepy HA-HAs... I only wish he did more at the end like in the studio version. "That's All" has always been a good song, but Phil steps around too much with his key changes and lame improvisations. From Invisible Touch, we get the title track, which I might say I like how it's done here better than the studio version, "Land of Confusion" kicks off the record, "Throwing It All Away" (Am I the only one who somewhat enjoys the goofy chanting done by Phil throughout the track?), "In Too Deep", and a horribly cut-down "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight". From the We Can't Dance album we get a very extended, but fun, "I Can't Dance", "No Son of Mine" is pretty much by the book, and "Jesus He Knows Me" shines with a few funny lines by Phil, and the insipid "Hold On My Heart", which I would wish to be banished from the entire Genesis catalog... at least something like "Illegal Alien" here would boost the Regular Rating by half a star.
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Record Rating: 6 / General Rating: 10
Best Song: OLD MEDLEY
Old Medley; / Driving The Last Spike; / Domino; / Fading Lights; / Home By The Sea/Second Home By The Sea; / Drum Duet;
A live album to please the old proggie fans? Huh. Well, basically, everything is done almost the same as their studio versions, if not more powerful and done with more feeling. "Driving The Last Spike" and "Fading Lights" still suck. "Domino" and "Home By The Sea/Second Home" are still decent. The drum thing at the end is pretty useless... In fact, I saw a video of it somewhere, and believe me, it is WAY more fun to see two pros (Mr. Collins and Mr. Thompson) bash away than to just hear them. But now for the album's piece of controversy... the "Old Medley"... which is basically a 20 minute mash of prog classics, and a few newer songs thrown in. It's basically Collins-led stuff like you'd find on Seconds Out... (which includes the butchering of "I Know What I Like"). Darryl Stuermer really tries to duplicate Hackett's guitar work, but he does okay filling in his own stuff. But hey, it COULD be Hackett up there playing, couldn't it, Mr. Tony Banks?
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