Reviewed by:
unregistered, on january 18, 2008
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Sound: To many this is the first real Genesis album, because here the band really found their sound. The music is progressive rock, but some very folky passages and instruments are present. My personal favorite is the opening track, 'Looking for Someone', because it is so stunningly beautiful, but 'Knife' is also absolutely great piece of hard rockin' progressive music. The other four track are nice also, but they tend to drag a little bit, especially the 9-minute epic 'Stagnation'. Melodies are really great and the musicians are talented. Very good! // 9
Lyrics and Singing: The lyrics are quite nice, also, but we're not talking of any Dylan or Lennon/McCartney lyrics here. 'Looking for Someone' is really meditative, 'White Mountain' tells a tale of a wolf, and so on. In my opinion Peter Gabriel really hasn't found his sharp lyric writing wits here, so they are quite 'progressive rock standard' level. The true stand-out lyrics come from the 'Knife', which tells about war/revolution or such. But even at this point Gabriel is really a remarkable singer, although his voice is somewhat of acquired taste; some like it, some just don't. Personally I really prefer his voice to, say, Geddy Lee's voice (no offense, Rush fans). // 9
Impression: I like this album very much, but there are some flaws and that's a fact. The sound quality is really poor and all those keyboard sounds may sound quite dated nowadays. Some people don't like this album because of its gothic overtones, but personally those thing don't matter to me. This is a great album which all the fans of early Genesis should own, although many people may tell you that this is a bad album. Still, it doesn't equal or surpass the level of later Genesis albums, like Foxtrot, Selling England or The Lamb. // 9
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