WIND & WUTHERING

'Wind and Wuthering' is the second effort in the Phil Collins era and is a vast improvement over the previous 'Trick of the Tail'. It seems as if the band has learned how to use their new vocalist properly on this album. The songs lack the diversity and theatrics that were attempted on Trick but rather focussed on a more subtle and clean composition style. As with any post Gabriel album the edge and angst is clearly diminished, however the ambience of this album more than compensates for this loss. There is no true low point on the album though some songs are weaker than others.

The final three pieces, 'Unquiet Slumber for the Sleepers...In That Quiet Earth', followed by 'Afterglow' is perhaps their most triumphant of endings (yes, even rivalling the masterpiece Supper's Ready). These three tracks contain no pauses thus giving the feeling of an epic (my guess is that the backlash against pretentious 15-20 minute epics forced them into claiming this as three separate songs). The music here is reminiscent of Genesis' past glory, haunting musical motifs and sounds followed by complex all out rocking and then ending with the uplifting and majestry of 'Afterglow'. This would put to rest the grand era of Genesis, as they would rather dramatically shift over to the pop side of music after this work.

Having observed the epic ending we then turn to the more conventional of the tracks. The album opens with two mini-epics in 'Eleventh Earl of Mar' and 'One for the Vine'. 'Eleventh..' is a somewhat rocking and upbeat song and has some decent moments but overall fails to really excite any great emotion. 'One for the Vine' is a more meloncholic piece that takes a while to get into but is a worthy piece overall. We can see here the adjustment toward a less diverse singing style as their is never a need for Collins to try and belt out anything truly aggressive, rather the band uses his airy more melodic vocal stlyings to their potential. 'Blood on the Rooftops' can be thought of in a similar vein, i.e. a meloncholic piece with some strong moments but generally without any dramatic mood changes throughout. 'Your Own Special Way' is a straight up love ballad rarely encounted up to this point in the bands history save for 'More Fool Me' from SEBTP. I'm sure that die hard prog heads will despise this track as it points toward the bands more commercial future, but it isn't the most terrible thing ever written, but definitely lacks the depth that we've come to expect from these great masters of prog; this is easily the low point of the album.

The final two tracks, 'All in a Mouse's Night', and 'Wot Gorilla" are both very light pieces, thematically speaking. 'All in a Mouse's Night' is a story song, that seems very child oriented. If you can get over the silliness of the concept you may find its not that bad of a piece and in fact very playful overall. While 'Wot Gorilla' is a short instumental and by far the most upbeat that this album gets, I actually would consider this the second best track behind the concluding three songs.

Overall I would say that this is one of the better efforts from Genesis, Gabriel era included, and is easily the best under Collins as singer. It's a shame that this would be the last time that Steve Hackett would be with the band as he finally seemed to be garnering a larger role in the music. Beyond this album there would be only a smittering of memorable moments from Genesis, but conversely a lot of commercial success.