FOXTROT

For me, this is the greatest progressive rock album of all time, which makes it one of the greatest albums of all time, and so just has to be Genesis' best album as well. A tour de force of dynamic, intriguing, and powerful progressive rock from beginning to end. Stunning musicianship and instrumental prowess throughout, and their greatest songs. The standout track is, of course, 'Supper's Ready', the greatest progressive rock song of all time, a 23-min epic that fills Side 2 of the album, and has everything you could ever want in a song. Introduced by Hackett's beautiful brief solo classical guitar piece 'Horizons', 'Supper's Ready' starts with the wonderful anthemic 'Lover's Leap' section, establishing the theme with a beautiful soaring melody, then moving through the subsequent sections featuring delightful, beautiful, emphatic, quirky, majestic, silly, powerful, and bizarre aspects as it moves along, culminating in the utterly incredible and powerful long buildup of 'Apocalypse in 9/8', resolving in the most triumphant, majestic, and transcendent finale reprising themes from earlier in the piece. An unparalleled achievement in rock music. And unlike most long-form songs, there are no lulls or letdowns or long repetitive passages or tedious solos. The multiple sections keep the song moving and changing throughout, introducing new elements and themes every few minutes, and astonishing instrumental and vocal sections. And this is the only 20-plus minute song I know that actually seems too short, as when it comes to the end, you just want it to keep going on longer, it is just such a joy to listen to. Although certainly the highlight, the album has much more to offer as well. Side 1 also contains some of the band's greatest works, including album opener 'Watcher of the Skies' and the quirky darkly comic story song 'Get Em Out by Friday'. But the highlight of Side 1 is the vastly underrated masterpiece that is 'Can-Utility and The Coastliners', a masterfully efficient mini-epic that packs all the beauty, excitement, glory, and drama of their long-form epics into an incredible and remarkably creative song coming in at a concise runtime of under 6 minutes. The album is just amazing from beginning to end, set the bar for what progressive rock could accomplish, and influenced countless imitators and admirers, and fans. The epitome of progressive rock.