What's the best Genesis album?

The only track I'd take off of The Lamb is Ravine, which does feel like a pointless meander at that point in the album. The other instrumentals are solid.

There's a bunch of live Waiting Rooms on Youtube. Genesis would have made a killer krautrock band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmeyb8bX4Uo

there's a great 12-minute rehearsal jam on "fly on a windshield" floating around out there (not on youtube that i can find or i'd link it). kind of reminds me of embryo for whatever reason.

I don't really know their discography very well, but I don't anything is going to top Foxtrot for me, so that's probably why. Supper's Ready has the cutest lyrics of all time.

human bacon

tangent - you used to write on epinions?

actually love Ravine. got fond memories of getting the double Lamb CD and skipping to try and hear The Light Dies Down the second time I played it and getting Ravine by mistake and it scaring the crap out of me. The one album they did where there's this actual undeniable undercurrent of menace to it, simliar to The White Album

yeah i love "ravine" too. lot of harrowing empty space in the second half of the lamb

as much as I enjoy the post-Gabriel era(s), the creepy nastiness which peaked on the Lamb all but disappeared

Ravine gives Peter time to change out of the Slipperman costume I guess.

The menace made it onto Gabriel's first few solo albums. Moribund the Burgermeister is pretty Lamb-like, and there's scary shit on Melt and Security — especially in the German, which gives something like Not One of Us a vaguely fascist undertone. It was all gone, though, by So, and I don't think he's ever recaptured it. Most of Up is just kind of lamely overwrought.

Will have to give the german versions a listen but had never previously felt the need to. Always found the first two solo albums a bit lacking

"This is the Picture" (and "We Do What We're Told" - originally intended for PG3?) is sort of menacing, "Mercy Street" is definitely spooky.

On "Selling" and "Lamb" in particular, even "Trick" and "Wind," I find it remarkable how well Phil's drums in particular are recorded. They just sound great.

The drums on A Trick of the Tail sound incredible - in fact of all the Genesis records, that's my favourite sounding of them all - particularly the remaster. Duke comes very close, though.

I don't really like the way The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway sounds... it's a bit muffled and monochromatic, I think.

Trying to give And Then There Were Three a serious shot, but I can't really get into the songwriting on that album. Follow You Follow Me has a simplicity and freshness.

invisible touch is the best genesis album. not a single bad song on it.

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, July 8, 2017 1:31 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree that there's not a single bad song on it!

First Response Hall of Fame: This is the POLL We Live In: Genesis - Invisible Touch

Some dude's "bald Thriller" comment re: Invisible Touch couldn't have been more otm, imo!

The title track, 'Land of Confusion', 'Domino' and 'Throwing It All Away' ... superb.

When it comes to a sense of menace Genesis stuff, no moment on Lamb compares to the first time I saw the video to 'Mama' ...

"back in nyc" is menacing af

Give the dude credit, he had good taste in covers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubYDPqi6ht4

I always forget how much I enjoy the glassy monumentalism of Duke and (to a lesser extent) And Then There Were Three.

With 'Duke' in particular it might in part be that it reminds me (in a reverse-influence sense) of Marillion's 'Clutching At Straws'.

But tonight it occurred to me that ATTWT's 'Down And Out' reminds me of my beloved first Shy Child album!

Most of my listening this week has been Genesis albums. I've known the Gabriel era albums for years but A Trick Of The Tail is the only Collins one I've checked out before now. I'm surprised how much I've enjoyed these albums. Abacab and the self titled are the two that are standing out. Abacab is good all the way through apart from that obnoxious synth at the end of Dodo/Lurker. As others have said, the self titled is badly let down by Illegal Alien. It's actually quite a good tune but obviously so misguided in every other way. I think I'd still pick that album up if I saw it cheap as the rest of it is so good. It would just be like Iggy Pop's New Values where I pretend African Man doesn't exist. Interested to hear And Then There Were Three and Wind & Wuthering next. It's been really interesting following this thread as I get to know the albums.

Abacab is a patchy follow-up to Duke, IMO. I like the title track a lot, even though it probably doesn't deserve to be that long - and 'No Reply At All' would benefit by having the obnoxious horns removed from it. I generally love horn sections, but not on Genesis and Phil Collins records where they generally sound tacky. 'Who Dunnit?' is crap, and the epics aren't particularly memorable.

I love how Abacab sounds like Genesis running into Simple Minds and The Teardrop Explodes in a crowded thoroughfare.

(Specifically referencing those bands' contemporaneous material there)

Abacab is a patchy follow-up to Duke, IMO

it's not

and 'No Reply At All' would benefit by having the obnoxious horns removed from it

god the next sentence was even worse

imo the fenix horns pretty much never sound tacky, they act as sharp punctuation wherever they're employed?

I love how Abacab sounds like Genesis running into Simple Minds and The Teardrop Explodes in a crowded thoroughfare.

― Tim F, Wednesday, July 12, 2017 9:20 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is indeed what it sounds like, but the end result isn't as great as that description sounds because the material isn't quite there, whereas on Duke not only did they manage to incorporate elements of New Wave into their sound successfully, but they managed to balance it with their progressive tendencies and they managed to write a set of wall-to-wall very good to great material, powerfully played and impeccably produced.

It has its highlights, but it's definitely a weaker Genesis record.

Relistened to "Invisible Touch" today after reading all the reappraisals on the IT thread and...yikes. Outside of "Tonight..." I can'tt get with its über-mid-80s digi-production at all. I remembered that's when I had stopped caring.

The "uber-mid '80s digi-production" is part of the reason I like the album so much - another reason is that there's not a dud track on it!

Now that the connection has occurred to me I am very curious to know what a Brab thinks of Sons and Fascination.

sympathetic to capitaine jay vee's experience of invisible touch; the other day i was listening to it and was kinda annoyed at the digital space in which the songs unfold bc it made the more atmospheric sections of songs sound thin and distant. weirdly this was most pronounced during "tonight..." could've just been my mood at the time as obv i love ultra-synthetic production, unreal crystalline approximations of "real" instruments revolving coldly in an artificial environment 4ever, that's the stuff

i have never heard a simple minds record tim

xpost:

A connection between Genesis and Simple Minds occurred to me before, but weirdly the other way around - the bassline to 'In Trance As Mission' has always reminded me of the riff of the 'Apocalypse' section of 'Supper's Ready' ... I wonder if the early Minds were Gabriel-era Genesis fans?

but that'll change soon! xp

OMG Brad it must!

Given SM got Steve Hillage to produce S&F I wouldn't be surprised if they were British prog fans more generally.

I look forward to Brad being the only person on ILM to like 'Belfast Child' ...

I am a huge fan of slick '80s production in many cases ("Cupid & Psyche 85", Brian Ferry's solo stuff of the decade, anything ZTT/ Trevor Horn, etc). but I'm with ToddBonzalez re: the airless digital space the songs exist in here. Plus there's a pronounced nasal shrillness to Phil's voice on this album that grates.

I don't really notice any big difference in Phil's voice on this album, except that he was a far more accomplished singer by that point and had better control over his voice!

The endless plain of digispace + Collins' decision to shout = an often grating experience. It ruins "Tonight, Tonight Tonight" and "Anything She Does" for me.

lol "plane"

'Tonight, Tonight, Tonight' is perfect, IMO. Can't fault Collins' passionate vocal performance on that at all.

"the endless plane of digispace" is my favorite john cale song

that's what I had in mind

Tonight x 3's rain of pain falls on an endless plain

I recall being profoundly disappointed with abacab upon its release and I still tend to value the post-Duke material much less than what came earlier. But wow, I wasn't aware of the resistance they faced on their 1981 tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8d3-CKPupM

I wonder if the early Minds were Gabriel-era Genesis fans

they were never shy about it either
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n760wQHFVOo&t=2m14s
2m14s

that may have not worked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n760wQHFVOo

is there a reason why The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is not on Spotify but everything else is?