FOXTROT

Foxtrot, Genesis' fourth album is a must for any collector of progressive music. The signature song, Supper's Ready, is a magnificant opus taking up almost 23 minutes of side two of the LP. The sewing together of the disparate parts of this album as seemlessly as they do is a marvel to this day. From the quiet, pastoral opening of acoustic guitars (Mike and Tony on 12-string guitars and Steve on a six-string guitar) into the robust middle section and finally onto the climactic end (Apocalypse in 9/8), Genesis breaks all bounds, switching keys and time-signatures practically willy-nilly, and yet playing perfectly and uplifting the listeners spirits with the denoument of As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs. This is a piece of work aspired to by many, but achieved by very, very few.

This is not to say that the rest of the album is chopped liver - it's not. In fact it is the rest of the album that pushes Foxtrot into the masterpiece collection of prog. Watcher of the Skies from side one is one of the best opening songs to any album, from any time, there has ever been. The opening mellotron riff, building to a crescendo with the entire band is incredible. The sound collage on this track influenced many people in progressive rock still to this day.

Another seminal piece on this album is Get 'Em Out By Friday, whose lyrics detail how they planned to make people smaller so that more people could fit into the apartment blocks, and how some of the older people didn't want to move, even being willing to pay twice the rent. My only problem with this song, and a few others on the album, is that Genesis tries to squeeze in too much information in too short a time period allowed by the song - it almost becomes sensory overload as Gabriel sings a mile a minute to get all the lyrics in.

Still, this is one of the best prog albums of all time, in my opinion. You can't go wrong here. If possible, pick up the newly remixed and remastered version, you'll really enjoy it. 5 stars.