979 Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (1976)

979 Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (1976)

Studio Album - Progressive Rock



About the Act:

Genesis were of course a titanic Rock band, and one of the core bands that people think of when "Prog Rock" is mentioned. They existed from 1967 to 1998 (not counting a brief later reunion) which is quite an impressive stretch. Their history can be summarised in four phases:

1967-1970 - whiffling around a bit playing Folky Rock and having one disastrous album.

1970-1974 - The Peter Gabriel era - completely bonkers Prog Rock, Epic fantasy and crazy costumes. Five albums.

1975-1977 - The Transition era - Phil Collins takes over vocals. Prog is seemingly dying, so ever-experimental, Genesis start experimenting with more mainstream music, songs about real people, even <cough> love songs. Two albums.

1977-1996 - The mainstream era. Steve Hackett has left because things are not bonkers enough for him any more, and the three Remainers (Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks) embark on nearly 20 years of commercial success as a mainstream Rock Band with occasional nods to the bonkers-ness of the past. Six albums.

Finally Phil Collins leaves and they finish things off with a final, less successful album.

About the Album:

Peter Gabriel, the charismatic and eccentric frontman for Genesis had just left. They didn't know what to do. They wanted to prove they could make it without him, so they wrote an album. They started to record it and still didn't have a singer. They started auditioning possible replacements, but nobody seemed to fit. They recorded most of the music, and some backing vocals. Finally Phil Collins
did the lead vocal for "Squonk" and the rest of the band liked it so much they persuaded him to do all of the others. There
was still some question about how they were going to manage live, it not being reasonable for Phil to drum and sing at the same time. In the end he relented to having another drummer with them, as long as he could choose the drummer, and could still drum for instrumental passages. He chose Bill Bruford, who was all over the Prog scene.

My History with this Album:

I have had a vinyl copy of this album for years, but didn't listen to it very often. 

Review:

Context is everything. The context in which I find myself is that I am reviewing this album straight after reviewing George Best by The Wedding Present.  Now it is fair to say that I was not over-impressed with George Best. Putting it next to Genesis makes me think that it is actually childish finger-painting, while this album is a Rembrandt. It is beautiful, carefully crafted, varied and inventive. Although I have had a copy for years, last night is the first time that I put on headphones, and listened to it in the dark with no distractions. It is worth doing.

Almost a decade before Punk there was a musical movement that rejected the norms of Pop music and rebelled, taking rock in a new, and at the time, shocking, direction. This was Prog, and the difference was that it emphasised skill and invention over commercialism. this is a prog rock album to the core. Musically, there are unusual harmonies, unusual rhythms, unusual structures, and sometimes unusual instruments. It is intricately crafted and highly varied. Despite the normal inaccessibility of some prog, there are occasional singable and memorable lines, both sung and instrumental.

In production it is also intricate and varied, stretching the limits of the studio and taking time to create a multitude of textures. Unfortunately the vocals are a times quite obscured int he mix, this is probably a result of Phil Collins being unsure about his vocals (this was his first album of being front-man, and the vocals are fine by the way). The vocal delivery is good, and almost (but not quite) as expressive as former front-man Peter Gabriel. 

But for all that, the real star of the album is the lyrics. It is fair to say that at this point Genesis were still pretty bonkers and so the songs tend to lean towards various fantasises, invented myths and somewhat bizarre storytelling. For me, highlights are Robbery, Assault and Battery, and A Trick of the Tail.

So, chalk and cheese compared to the simplicity and directness of The Wedding Present. It is not simple, it is not direct, some people will be put off because prog is "pretentious". It is full of its own cleverness, but boy, it is clever.

8.5/10




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