ABACAB

Abacab is a good album for Genesis, their pop and prog sides are much better integrated together than they were on Duke. The problem with this album (I'm never satisfied am I?) is it's rigid, robotic rhythm section. It just doesn't allow the band to play freely. And the production, while a huge leap forward when compared to Duke, is a bit flat. Everything is more or less the same volume, so there's nothing coming into the foreground to really grab the listeners attention. A good example of this is the title song, the first half is a perfect stadium prog/pop (Phil Collins' delivery being spot on) but the instrumental second half is weighted down by the monotonous drone of the bass/drum pattern, and try as he may with some really cool synths, Tony Banks can't save this. There is no room for the instrumentation to expand or develop. The remainder of the tracks have a very similar beat.

The best songs are actually three 'pop' songs at the end, 'Man on the corner' a Phil Collins R&B song, 'Like it or not', which has a softer, lilting beat and a great chorus. But the best song has to be 'put another record on', which is more or less a straight ahead rocker, with an excellent sing-along chorus, but they add progressive touches to it and the drum work is really good, nice variety of rhythms. Overall, Ababcab is a strong Genesis album that only suffers from a dull, robotic rhythm and the production could be better, but otherwise I would give it four stars. Instead, it is worth 3.5.

UPDATE November 2013 Having heard some of the 'rejected' songs of these sessions, I think they would add GREATLY to this album. I think the original album is worth 3.75, but with the additon of 'Paperlate', 'Submarine' and 'You Might Recall', instead of, say 'Who dunnit', this could rise up to 4 and a half stars