FOXTROT

This is my first review and this is my fav album of all time in the world of rock music. Foxtrot is truly a masterpice, probably the best album Genesis ever made. In 1972 Genesis reached finally the complete maturity, and realized an amazing record, sure a step forward compared to "Trespass" and also to the previous, fantastic, "Nursery Cryme".

Watcher Of The Skies is the opener, with a great mellotron introduction. Written during a tour in Italy, the song became an absolute classic of the Gabriel era. The voice of Peter tells a story of an alien who reached the Earth and find no human life at all but only the ruins of our civilization. The "morse code" rhythm of Collins and Rutheford is perfect and Hackett shows his distinctive technique on guitar during short but very powerful passages. The final climax is one of the highlight of the album, with great energy and brilliant mellotron outburst.

The second track, Time Table is very different, much more melodic and simple. I think this song is a little bit underrated by many people but for me it's simply splendid. The voice of Gabriel reached here one of the peak of his career. The melodic piano-line at the end of the song is another great moment and in my opinion is unforgettable.

After the calm, another prog mini-epic, Get'em Out by Friday(with a sensational interpretation by the singer and a great effort by the band), Can-Utility And The Coastliners (the story of King Canute) with folky passages that evolve to much more complex forms of music, and the short Hackett solo guitar Horizons lead the listener to the main event: the most incredible suite ever made by a prog band.

Supper's Ready is not only a suite. It's a sort of boarding pass: when you appreciate it, you can say without doubt "I'm finally entered in the world of Genesis". Both experimental and melodic, with incredible instrumental moments ("Apocalypse in 9/8 is really amazing!) and an emotional performance by Gabriel, this 22 minutes epic is the masterpice of Genesis career. The lyrics (written by Peter Gabriel) are, I think, very introspective and it is not simple catch the real meaning of the song; for sure the inspiration move from a real thing (The trance of Peter's wife, Jill Moore) and evolved in a bigger motif, the battle between Good and Evil (with a lot of references to the Bible - particulary the book of Revelation - and mythology in general).

I think Foxtrot has a fantastic balance between acoustic and electric moments, incredible organ and mellotron parts by Tony Banks, with no "synthy" sounds at all, stunning rhythmic variations by Collins, amazing lyrics and incomparable atmospheres......A 5 stars rating album of course!!!

Highly recommended. Maybe the best prog album ever. Rating: 10/10.

Best song: Supper's Ready

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