FOXTROT

This is one of those classic albums, that in many ways, defines the genre, and doesn't have a single bad track to its name. For me its the quintessential Gabriel era album. As musicians Genesis were starting to tighten up. They hadn't quite got there, in fact Tony Banks believed that 'Selling England by the pound' was the first time they played well on record. Foxtrot is certainly no dissapointment though, from a listerners perspective. The album is conceptual, varied in feel and consistently high in quality. It opens with 'Watcher of the skies' a great concept song about an alien visiting Earth and despairing at finding that 'life had once again destroyed life' Tony Banks plays one of his most memourable mellotron chord sequences at the beginning of this song, and the live rendtion on 'Genesis Live' (1973) is very moving. 'Time table' muses on the passing of time, with classic Genesis melancholy and a beautiful piano part. 'Get em out by Friday' is a masterpiece of social comment, unusual for Genesis at this time. It deals with the then growing trend of New Town developments in Britain, and where the trend may have led us! The song starts with a family being evicted by the council so the street can be demolished and redeveloped. They are moved to block of flats and have difficulty adapting to the change after losing their home. The song is tinged with sadness, but also agression as Gabriel skillfully plays the part of the agent sent to move the families on - the winkler. The song moves through time to a future world where the trend of stacking people on top of one another has got so out of hand that 'genetic control' impose restrictions on humanoid height to squeeze as many people into one building as possible. Thankfully the 'high rise revolution' never got that far!! Far fetched, but what a brilliant story!

'Can utility and the coastliners' follows. This is a little talked about song, and much underated. This is one of my favourite Genesis songs of any era. It combines everthing that made the Genesis formula brilliant and unique, into 6 minutes of excellent music. The classical guitar intro perfectly sets the scene and gives way to Phil's crashing drums and Tony's bass pedals. Very Dramatic and very melodic.

'Suppers Ready' is just a classic. Plain and simple. We could pick this work to pieces over a number of pages and still not do it the justice it deserves in any review. Genesis tell of an epic struggle between good and evil in this masterpiece. Chapter by chapter your attention will never falter. Genesis had almost certainly mastered the art of telling stories with music, although much of the lyrics are clearly closer to poetry than prose. Within the whole 'Suppers Ready' suite there are a number of sections which could have been plucked out and presented as singles, but thankfully they weren't. Suppers Ready needs to be listerned to in its entirity and savoured for the epic it is. There have not been many moments in rock music as tense and exciting as the 'Apocalypse in 9/8' section, or as imaginitive or eccentric as 'Willow farm'

Foxtrot is a gem of progressive rock, and one of the best albums this band ever recorded.