Genesis -- Trespass

I haven't voted yet -- whichever song i'm listening to at the moment is my favorite.

Yeah, really when it comes down to it this record is very good from front-to-back, with 'Visions of Angels' being the song I don't quite like as much as the others, but still like.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

glad to see everything getting a vote, but "the knife"? it's such a "classic rock orthodoxy" pick! is ilx losing its edge?

Looks like we need a Genesis/solo poll.

The Knife... figures

...is there a soul from "the kings" who can contribute? Are The Kinks the only thing left that's more British?

Valentijn, rushmorancy and Austin rock!

I find the idea of 'The Knife' being a "classic rock orthodoxy" pick hilarious given that you'd really struggle to find many people who know anything on this album outside of Genesis' hardcore fanbase.

glad to see everything getting a vote, but "the knife"? it's such a "classic rock orthodoxy" pick! is ilx losing its edge?

― The Saga of Rodney Stooksbury (rushomancy), Friday, July 14, 2017 2:04 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I C WHAT U DID DERE

As for Genesis' "Britishness", I can see why a foreigner would reach that conclusion but Gabriel-era Genesis do not reflect the Britain I know - and given their background, they couldn't. Having said that, The Kinks don't either - their version of Britain is archaic and even idealised.

I find the idea of 'The Knife' being a "classic rock orthodoxy" pick hilarious given that you'd really struggle to find many people who know anything on this album outside of Genesis' hardcore fanbase.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican)

true and all, but i live among squonkheads

re: genesis' "britishness", peter gabriel did, you know, _literally paint his face as brittania_. on the other hand he then decided to cosplay as a nuyorican street punk, so...

I guess i know nothing of things Britanical, musical, or Gabriel.

Oh dear oh dear, I wasn't expecting an album anywhere near this good. I like it even more than Selling England, so it's my favorite then (still to hear Nursery Cryme, the debut and live album; speaking of Gabriel era only). It's just so beautiful, majestic and mythopoetic to an extent the other albums aren't; I'm thrilled with it. "Visions Of Angels" is my favorite. "The Knife" sounds like a Jrpg boss fight (that's a good thing of course).

The Knife is fine but should never have won this poll. Trespass is great because they never did anything like it again, that super-thick hazy blur of endlessly overdubbed guitars is probably the best sound they ever made, Stagnation is just the best. Banks probably hates this record, the maungy cunt.

definitely their pastoral best.

Drumming on "Visions Of Angels" is great too.

that super-thick hazy blur of endlessly overdubbed guitars is probably the best sound they ever made

idk if I agree with that last part but there's definitely a very special sound here. mostly I think the members of the band didn't really know what they were doing (as they'd probably tell you today) which makes the album a lot more intriguing than it would be otherwise.

maybe John Mayhew was the real genius in Genesis!

really though I think Anthony Phillps gets much of the credit for this album sounding how it does. His solo albums are very similar.

All the tremble in Gabriel's voice on this album is also great. This, NC and Foxtrot were really headfucking to discover as a teenager, this cracked crackly glimpse at broken fairy stories that reflected my own nightmares and something unconscious, displaced nostalgia for shit I hadn't lived thru but was surrounded by, me and my besty wandering the semi-countryside round the back of industrial farms, railway tracks and bottomless slip pools, Mellotron! Victorian evil, a nation cursed by its own shithousery, but still somehow beautiful and sad and alluring

I just tracked down and read an interview with Mayhew. I guess he was the sole working class guy in Genesis? Anyway, apparently after Genesis he more or less gave up music and became a carpenter.

Re: guitars, I haven't listened to it for a while, but I knew back then Tony Banks was playing some guitar, too, so maybe that accounts for what sounds like a lot of overdubs?

yeah at least one of them was playing a 12-string too, but i'm sure i read an interview one time where they described just layering all the guitar tracks they'd recorded over each other because they weren't confident in their takes or something

I guess he was the sole working class guy in Genesis?

Also Phil Collins and (much later) Ray Wilson

There can be only one at a time.

Yes, I believe that clause was stated explicitly in the original terms of reference

ABAC1AB

"I fagged for Mike Rutherford in Genesis"

Think Steve Hackett also didn't come from a particularly privileged background

so just to check, is it readily accepted that "the knife" is a parody of the theme to "the flashing blade", or is that just some crazy idea i came up with?

Lol I don't think I've ever thought of that but I like it

the second half of this is really something, isn't it? whipped this out for the first time in forever, there are some really pretty sections in it, especially "Dusk". what a cool sound they had. too bad most of the pressings of this sound like garbage, with Gabriel right in front of the mic while Mayhew languishes in a room 500 feet away. it's still interesting to hear Mayhew's playing, maybe he ain't quite got the technique but he's kind of a force, just pounding away like crazy on tunes that don't really call for it.

There are so many nice bits on this, but also so many awkward transitions, lyrics, drum fills... There's a cloud of group self-consciousness over Trespass. I honestly don't hear any atmospheres or pastoral visions that they didn't improve upon somewhere in the next four records.