A TRICK OF THE TAIL

The first album without Peter Gabriel is one of the finest efforts Genesis have produced. One major difference to its predecessors is the lack of extremely short and extremely long songs, which had become a trademark of Genesis over the last few albums. But this doesn't affect the quality at all, quite on the contrary, it makes the songs easier accessible without lowering the musical standard or drifting off to more mainstream sounds. We were spared that development for a few years yet.

Oh how fresh and nearly happy most of the songs sound, compared to the strict artistic approach of Selling England... and Lamb. Surprisingly, as I usually like ballads, the two slow songs, Entangled and Ripples made the "weakest" impression on me, if only slightly. But my favourites are Mad Man Moon with its almost classical sound, dancing Robbery, Assault & Battery and the powerful final track Los Endos, which is strong competition for It and Supper's Ready in regards to the best final song of a Genesis album, though I wouldn't consider the latter a classical finale. The rest are strong songs, just without the extra bit. Dancing On A Volcano may be one of the best openers of a Genesis album, but there are quite a few album openers by other artists that remain in my head a bit longer. The same is true for Squonk while the title track is too similar to Robbery, only a wee wee bit weaker.

Still some 4.8 stars for a wonderful album.