SPOT THE PIGEON

"Match of the Day", while funny, is the type of song that'll bore you after a couple of plays. "Pigeons", on the other hand is a song that slowly grows on you - it takes some time to appreciate the chord changes which in fact are very interesting (most people would be distracted by the one-note line on first hearings) - and secondly, the vocal melody is well crafted over such a peculiar chord structure. It's not 'prog' in the traditional sense, but it's simply good that no ordinary artist would be able in achieving ('prog' labelling is a typical 90s thing - unheard of in the 70s, when people didn't care about categories) "Inside and Out": touching lyrics and a sweet (and fortunately, not sappy) first half. But it's the instrumental part that elevates the song. Though lacking Banks' better ARP solos, it has the flashiest Steve Hackett solo on a Genesis record ever. A pity that the ballad part of the song was too plain and not craftily constructed like 'Ripples' or 'Entangled'.

I gave it 3 stars, simply because the better songs have been reissued on Archives Vol. 2.