NURSERY CRYME

Nursery Cryme is the first Genesis album that displays their true classic-era sound that was still in development on Trespass. Like most all Genesis albums, I found this album to be an amalgamation of good and bad. Personally, this is one of my least favorite Genesis albums, but there are still some nice tunes here.

"The Musical Box" starts out the album on kind of a boring note, with just Gabriel's voice accompanied by light keys and guitar. But then a mash of manic rock suddenly rushes in and seems very abrasive to my ears. This is one of the most random sounding tracks in the Genesis catalog.

"For Absent Friends" is a nice acoustic ballad that reminds me of something by John Denver, but obviously less country influenced. Otherwise, I'd probably hate this track, but it comes off as sounding very soothing. But, it doesn't offer up enough in structure to be significant in any way.

"Return of the Giant Hogweed" is a classic track in the Genesis catalog, and the first impression of this track is always good, but I always feel this track goes downhill whenever Gabriel starts singing. I feel like this would be much better as an instrumental. This track is overall quite heavy and wouldn't sound out of place on Trespass, and is very bass heavy.

"Seven Stones" is a quaint and softer styled track, and it doesn't really offer much variation other than a speeding up temporarily. This is one of the most forgettable track on the album, though there is some nice mellotron atmosphere near the end.

"Harold the Barrel" is one of the best tracks on the album, and starts off with a fun and bouncy rhythm accompanied by Gabriel's vocals that come off sounding like someone's senile grandmother. I really enjoy the staccato keys throughout the song. Short, but sweeter than most on this album.

"Harlequin" is a pretty and quirky sounding tune with Gabriel's outrages vocals being far more subdued than normal, and it sounds nice. This song would be way better if there was some kind of variation, but nothing really develops. It's still beautiful though.

"The Fountain of Salmacis" is without a doubt the best track on this album, which makes this album the ultimate save-the-best-for-last example. With a strong mellotron intro that forshadows "Watcher of the Skies" on the next album, the track soon sets off with rhythmic bass thumping and fantastic mellotron lines. There is a very aggressive keyboard solo in the middle of the song that gives way to another fantastic few lines of bass. There is soon a random theme that appears that gives off a haunted house kind of feel, but it actually works fairly nice on this track.

I've found that the classic Genesis albums generally have at least one track that is absolutely great, which happens to be "The Fountain of Salmacis" on this album. Unfortunately, every other track has always been highly forgettable in my opinion. I've come to assume that Genesis' brand of quirky symphonic prog is just not something I enjoy as much as most reviewers on this site, but this is a classic album by a classic band and I suggest that anyone interested in prog at least give this a listen for good measure.