WIND & WUTHERING

A very difficult album to review, Wind And Wuthering. The tensions inside the quartet were obvious, with some members willing to persue a more commercial approach while others (or maybe only Steve Hackett) wanted to keep the sound more progressive. Looking back it is easy to see why Hackett left. Freed from him, the other three enjoyed a 15 year career as a very successfull pop band (in terms of record sales at least).

Stil those same tensios did not prevented the music of this CD to be very good, sometimes excellent. In fact, this can be considered the last truly progressive album done under the name Genesis. even if their pop leanings were clearly visible on some spots (most notably on Mike Rutherford´s song Your Own Special Way). So in the end it is a bit of an hybrid, sometimes a bit squizofrenic record (some lyrics does not help either). Yet thw overall music is beautiful and the musicians are skillfully as ever. It deserves at least four stars in my opinion and I listen to it frequently, after all these years. Just don´t compare this one and The Trick Of The Tail to their classic Peter Gabirel era masterpieces. Since their lead singer left, it was another band. Good band, but really another one.

Nowadays it is almost a classic, just like The Trick Of The Tail, but they are not really par to their previous four studio effords. Excellent additions to any prog collection, almost masterpieces. Almost.