WIND & WUTHERING

Time is a good judge. Genesis (from 1969 to the late 70's) was my most important and collected band in my youth, and still holds the top place when it comes to my nowadays smallish vinyl collections. [Yes comes right behind, BTW.] I have no way to know it, but I think my most listened Genesis albums are not e.g. The Lamb or Selling England, but A Trick Of The Tail and Wind & Wuthering. They have stood the test of time as well - and often better - than Gabriel-era albums. The group really found themselves musically again after their (over) theatrical frontman left. And what a happy decision to have a new lead vocalist from within the group. (Well, I'm not getting into the latter-day pop-Genesis...) Simply, this album is wonderful.

I could talk a lot about each track but I'll keep in mind how endlessly reviewed Genesis are. There's no weak tracks, not even the slightly syrupy love song 'Your Own Special Way' written by Mike Rutherford. Even that one has a beautiful, pastoral aura. A short, sharp instrumental 'Wot Gorilla?' suffers only from a stupid title. As in the great cover art, there's such beauty in this album's music that you don't find anything quite like it elsewhere in their output. Take the glorious 10-minute Tony Banks epic 'One For The Vine' or the lovely Hackett/Collins composition 'Blood On The Rooftops'. Or the two-part prog instrumental full of Hackett-style atmosphere, which is cathartically followed by another love song, 'Afterglow'. That song may not be complex or innovative, but it has an extremely strong emotion without being plain sentimental.

I'm not sure how many of you PA fellows agree, but to me this is among prog's key albums and a fantastic personal classic of mine. In the end, it was the departure of Steve Hackett, not Peter Gabriel, that was artistically a bigger blow...