SPOT THE PIGEON

Spot the Pigeon is a very obscure EP that most Genesis fans would find quite dandy if it kept it's status of obscurity but this humble reviewer feels its objective to think for himself rather then conform to consensus opinion. For soley that reason, I have done just so and given this EP a fair, unprejudiced listen.

I personally find "Inside and Out" to be the centre of Steve Hackett's most definitively amazing work with Genesis. A twelve string ladden beauty with a heavenly chorus to end all heavenly choruses who's closest comparison is that Beatles anthem of undying gorgeousness, "Hey Jude". And that's only friggen half the song! The other half is a brilliant Yes flavored jam that's probably more frenetically inspirational than a Alka-Seltzer enema. Hackett plays a staggering solo quite in the vein of Mr. Steve Howe (which means it's very countryish and very kick-ass) and Banks plays a speedy keyboard solo that is very reminiscent of Keith Emerson. (Which means it's very synth-y, and a very fast paced deliverer of the goods.)

"Pigeons" is totally Genesis + The Kinks! The vocal melody is pure music hall and Tony Banks actually pens a great 'character sketch' on those flying crap machines. (Really, "Who put 50 tons of shit on the Foreign Office roof..." is an epic win! Hey, good job, Tony, the Davies brothers would be proud!) Also, this song is very boppy and quite possibly the precursor to That's All, in terms of boppiness, at least.

The final song "Match of the Day", interestingly enough, predicts the sound of Abacab (minus the eighties synths) five years later but that's not a bad thing. I like the poppy guitar sound and those bass swoops are a really nice touch!

I can understand the hatred for poppy tunes on this site but the pop slop on here is very well written and Inside and Out couldn't be mistaken for that so called "ABBA crap" (and I like ABBA, FYI) 2000 light years from home. Buy this fun little EP cheap on vinyl or otherwise lament over not being able to hear otherwise unavailable "Match of the Day". Curse you, Tony Banks for hating on the completionists and leaving it off Archive 2!

Album Grade: B

Best songs: Inside and Out

Worst Songs: None.