MIKE RUTHERFORD

This is my first try to write a review - and the first difficulty was to find "THE" Album to review. Should I take the "best" one of my collection ? or the best of the last year? the one which made me a fan to progressive rock? It' s really hard work to find the album to start in this community - so I took my personal album list to search the one to start......... I decided - after some studies - to take the worst album I've ever bought. Why - because to elect this album was really no problem.

Mike Rutherfords second album is poor in every sight. The album cover is ridiculous - the sound very poor - the lead vocals are incredibly weak.... I remember when I played this album the first time, I stopped the player to look, if it is really Mike Rutherfords album or just a wrong one..... it is a try for simple structured pop-songs, nothing to do with prog, but also nothing for radioshows, because of its poor sound and compositions....

The best songs will be Maxine and Hideaway - but only because there is no material on this album to compare. As I said - it was easy to identify the worst album of my collection - that means out of nearly 2000 albums.....this one is only a piece for completitionists....

1 star is very generous...

I briefly considered giving this album a 5 stars simply for shock value. However, I don't think that would be quite honest because this album is, frankly, not a masterpiece. Mike's vocals are an acquired taste. It's funny to know that every member of Genesis has sang on at least one album. Peter's vocal talents are, obviously, unquestioned. Phil's voice, while less respected, is still very powerful and expressive. Steve Hackett has developed into a respectably pleasant singer, and Anthony Phillips has a similar type of voice: pleasant, if not incredibly powerful. Tony has a voice reminiscent of the Pet Shop Boys (a comparassion he himself made, that I actually find to be true). Mike...oh Mike. Mike doesn't go out of tune on here. At least not often. It's simply that the texture and timbre of his voice is more than slightly unpleasant. It's funny to watch old footage of the band and see him singing back up vocals. He does good there. I guess when it came time to do his own album, and sing lead, he needed to do the "powerful" lead singing thing that Peter and Phil do so convincingly. Mike can't do that. His voice is raspy and deep. I don't know if he was still smoking around this time, but it sounds like he smoked at least a pack before each song.

Now that I've delved onto that often harped point, I'm going to go to the positives. Okay, for many Genesis (and even Mechanics fans) this album is an abberation. It doesn't sound ANYTHING like any Genesis album from any period. It doesn't sound ANYTHING like the smooth pop of the Mechanics. It doesn't sound ANYTHING like any solo album by any Genesis member, including Mike. The synthesizer tones are shril and sometimes noisy. The introductory synth riff to "A Day to Remember" is no doubt one of the most dissonant things on any Genesis album. As is the chorus synthesizer to "Acting Very Strange." The guitars here are distorted, sometimes repetitive, sometimes heavy, and sometimes fast. It's a loud screeching album that befits Mike's voice, to be quite honest. To the Genesis fan expecting "Mama" let alone anything Genesis did before or after, it's quite a shock. It definitely was to me.

However, to me it was a pleasant shock. I've always expected that, out of the "three" Mike was the strongest songwriter. Note that I don't say composer. Tony can write heads and tails above Mike per complexity of melody and harmonic complexity. But Tony, as good as he is, has a hard time writing a straight up pop tune. It seems forced to him to do so, and although he has some good ones, I don't think it's his forte. Likewise, with Phil, I think Phil is unable to get really complex, in general. He is a good songwriter, but limited and simplistic. This is why I think Mike is stronger: his songs are simpler than Tony's but more complex than Phil's. This is why his solo albums hold up artistically after all these years. Even though Phil was more succesful commercial than the Mechanics, to many critics and fans his solo career was a joke (I don't quite agree, but do understand). The Mechanics, however, are not as ridiculed. Their soft rocking style has been more succesful artistically, because their songs are more complex and diverse than Phil's. And Mike's songwriting was key to the success of the Mechanics.

This is why this album works for me. The melodies to these songs are incredibly strong, creative, diverse, and even meaningful. Try getting "Acting Very Strange" out of your head or even "Maxine." To some people, this is a bad thing, but I appreciate these melodies. I even appreciate the general approach. While Mike would have made an awful lead singer for Genesis or even on any other solo album, here it works. It works because the music is weird, dissonant, and even aggressive, as are his vocals. Mike's album tries to approach punk aggression with an early new wave style and it is an incredibly odd attempt. For me, the mix of melody and strangeness works. For others, it doesn't. I'll put it this way; no other album I've ever heard, including Genesis solo albums, sounds like this.

These early Genesis solo albums really speak volumes about the frame of mind of each band member and also their contribution to the band's sound. Tony's A Curious Feeling sounds like outtakes from "And Then There Were Three" with a generally more organic sound. The songs are filled with layers of keyboards, simple, but evocative guitar playing, and ultra pretentious and sometimes meaningless lyrics. The songs don't have an incredible amount of catchiness, but they are complex and involved enough to be of interest. Tony never really wrote in this direction again which leads to good (The Fugitive album and Strictly Inc) and bad (Soundtracks, whoa) things for him. Phil's debut shows a man obsessed with jazz and R&B. The music is the simplest and most direct any Genesis member has ever written, and the songs are heart breaking and heart felt. Phil really doesn't venture far outside of his paradigm during his solo career which is a good (lots of money, steady selection of hits, consistency) and bad (cheesiness, predictability, major loss of respectibility amongst fans and critics) thing. So it seems that Tony brought in the complexity and seriousness of Genesis while Phil brought in the heart and simplicity. What about Mike? Well, Smallcreep's Day shows a man smack dab in the middle. Mike's album sounds similar to Tony's in that it often sounds a lot like contemporary Genesis albums. However, his album is also much simpler than Tony's. Anthony Phillip's keyboard playing is interesting and intriguing, but nowhere near the levels of complexity and depth (literal depth) of Tony's. Mike drives his sound forward with hard driving acoustic guitars and catchy vocal melodies. The songs are simpler in structure than Tony's occasionally rambling pieces, but much richer in texture, melody, and harmony than Phil's occasionally simplistic tunes. Like Tony's A Curious Feeling, this album is driven by a literary source, but it never overwhelms the album. It is an ambitious album, but not pretentious. It has a comfortable feel, relaxed feel that not many Genesis albums, solo or otherwise, have. Phil might be simpler, but he's often overdramatic. Tony might try to write simpler songs, but he seems strained doing this. It seems to come easy to Mike, this direct complexity. If Tony is the brain, and Phil is the heart, maybe Mike is the muscles and sinew connecting the two, and the heart. His pop sensibilities on this album are sometimes as strong as Phil's, yet not as banal. Mike shows his number one contribution to Genesis was incredible songwriting.

Rutherford's Day

This first solo album by Mike Rutherford features Mike on guitars and bass, another Genesis member of the past in Anthony Phillips on keyboards, Simon Phillips on drums and Noel McCalla on vocals. The vocals are often rather soulful and soothing. The style of music involved is a kind of diluted Genesis of the And Then There Were Three and Duke era. I am a fan of those Genesis albums, but Smallcreep's Day, though a good album in its own right, is hardly up to the standards of those Genesis albums. Any claim to the effect that Smallcreep's Day is 'the lost Genesis album' is without merit in my opinion.

The compositions range from decent to good and the quality of the songs are quite evenly spread over the album's running time. The second vinyl side (the first side on some releases, I believe) is taken up by a continuous piece of music. It is rather good and fully listenable, but it is not very memorable. This long piece, as the album as a whole, has progressive moments and some soulful Pop moments.

In the end, I believe that this album will appeal to fans of post-Steve Hackett Genesis. A good but non-essential album.

I'm not having a good day so I feel the need to pile on the indefensible ;-) Mike Rutherford of Genesis decided to have a go at lead vocals with Acting Very Strange. It was his second solo with the first being the very good Smallcreeps Day. Now I like some pop / rock (yes I'm a fan of most of Mike and the Mechanics) but the first thing a pop song has to have is a good lead singer. Well, Mike is not it. I remember being warned about this one album, so I waited until I found the vinyl on sale for $1.99. There are a couple of good tunes, with Hideaway being the best of the bunch, but most of this is repetitive and without any development. Now that I have gotten this off of my chest, I'm feeling a bit charitable, but not much. I originally gave this a very weak 2 stars, but after thinking about it, I can only give this 1 star.

PS - This should remove the bile from the fans who want to stone Phil Collins for moving Genesis towards pop / rock. All three did it while Genesis as a whole did it better then any of them individually.

PPS - After editing this once and downgrading it to 1 star status, I decided to go back and listen to it for the first time in years. What did not change is Rutherford can't sing. What did change a little is my opinion of some of the songs. Besides Hideaway, Maxine, Couldn't get Arrested while not being great (or even close) brings some fresh air into the mix. By that I mean its not as layered as Genesis or most any prog album, but in this case its not unwelcome. I'm going back to my original 2 stars.

This album was released a year after the poor ''Abacab'' from whom you might have heard. I have rated this (non) ''Genesis'' album with one star.

To put things into perspective, you have to consider that ''Abacab'' was a masterpiece in comparison with this humiliating ''Acting Very Strange''.

Again, the title of the album is very well chosen. Our dear Mike was indeed acting very strange. These songs are absolutely awful. He improvised himself as a lead singer and the result is an enormous catastrophe.

The song writing is pitiful as well: there is nothing to be found here. No melody, no passion, no moving instrumental breaks NO NOTHING. From start to finish.

This is one of the poorest release I have ever heard (and I have heard a few thousand ones). I guess that it is not necessary to write a long & detailed review about this dreadful thing. It is a shame really. The only listenable song is the closing ballad ''Hideaway''.

To make your life healthier, I can only recommend you to NEVER, EVER listen to this record. Shame on you Mike. This is a typical zero star album. Such a sad story!

Lot's of four and five stars for this album. Huuum?

I wouldn't be that generous. Some OAR oriented songs, like ''Moonshine''; but remember this was released in 1980. It holds some ''Squonk'' values and is an average + opener; but no more.

Some songs (or parts) of this album sounds rather popish like ''Time & Time Again''. This was the mood of the year I would say. No harm but no big thing either. The real harm is reached with the weak ''Romani''. Actually, most of the first side of this LP isn't really outstanding in terms of prog to be honest (cf. ''Overnight Job'').

This album do share a lot of the music available while the band were only three. The epic that resides here sounds too much though as a combination of several songs rather than a smooth genuine epic. There are some fine moments and the whole is by far the best available on this creep's thing.

The opening '' Between the Tick and the Tock'' has definitely inspired ''Marillion'' (the genuine one of course) in their early days and is one the finest part of this work; plenty of emotion and talent.

''Cats & Rats'' does have a solid ''When They Were Three'' feel (again) which is far from being bad. At this time, it is about normal to say that the lead singer doesn't perform a great job. I quite like the instrumental parts: ''Smallcreep Alone'' which is quite melodic or the very ''Wind & Wuthering'' number called ''Out Of The Daylight''.

Don't worry though: this album which was released in 198 has much more to deal with ''Duke'' than with ''Abacab'' if you see what I mean. As such, I would rate it with three stars: a good album which features some fine moments. But by no means a masterpiece.

This is an incredible album, full of emotion and melody which oozes throughout the entire album. I would go as far as to say that it represents the best solo album from any Genesis artist. It is that good. The band is on top form and the vocals from Noel McCalla are pure heaven. Noel is currently the lead singer for Manfred Mann's Earth Band and has been so since 1991. An incredible 18 years, which is no mean feat in itself. He has a soulful voice (Between the Tick and the Tock) yet can reach the high points in songs such as "Cats and Rats". His vocal range suits fine the Earth Band's live material yet on this album he pushes the boundaries towards perfection. The music is played by many of Mike's friends and ex genesis band mates and they must have had a great time making the album because everything just clicks into place with apparent ease. But waiting around the corner was Mike's second solo album "Acting Very Strange" which unfortunately comes nowhere near this essential gem. Why oh why didn't he employ McCalla again? Five stars and still a regular play some 29 years on.

Smallcreeps Day gave me a greater appreciation for Michael Rutherford's contributions to Genesis. If it weren't for the vocals, you could mistake many of these songs for lost late-70's Genesis tracks.

The singer (Noel McCalla) has a voice that is rather nondescript. He's not bad, but he wouldn't stand out in a crowd and sound like a generic 80's AOR singer. On the more proggy compositions, however, his delivery reminds me of Peter Nicholls from IQ.

'Moonshine' is a good straight-forward rock song with a simple syncopated bass-pedal pulse that gets your head nodding. This whole first half of the album reminds me a lot of the 'Duke': 'Moonshine' is in the mold of 'Man of Our Times' and 'Turn it on Again', and 'Time and Time Again' is a decent ballad that sounds a lot like 'Cul-de-Sac' and 'Alone Tonight' mixed together. 'Every Road', another ballad, is more reminiscent of a weaker version of 'Your Own Special Way' and is one of the worst songs on the album.

The extended 'Smallcreeps suite' is definitely the highlight of the record and contains the only real progressive moments. The intro (Between the Tick and the Tock) is almost entirely composed of simple depressive synthesizer parts but has a nice dark atmosphere and creates a palpable mood of loneliness and desperation. 'Cats and Rats' feel like a throwback to 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' with an extremely 'Back in NYC'-like synthesizer riff. 'Out into the Daylight' is the best track on the album: it harkens back to the instrumental songs on Wind and Wuthering ('Wot Gorilla' and 'In that Quiet Earth'), but it's not quite as good as either of those.

It almost seems to me like Mike made this album only to prove he had a much bigger hand in the creation of Genesis' music (and success) than he usually gets credit for. It's obvious from this album that he was a major contributor to their sound, maybe even more-so than Tony Banks. He does repeat himself a lot though and there's nothing on this record that he hasn't done before (and better) with Genesis.

That said: 'Smallcreeps' is quite a pleasant and enjoyable listen, it's just not very progressive or groundbreaking. This is far from essential material, but I think hardcore Genesis fans will find a lot to like here.

For those Genesis nuts who love their Wind & Wuthering yet DON'T have a copy of Mike Rutherford's Smallcreep's Day, you really need to put this one on your list STAT! Just a stunningly melodic collection of tunes that the Genesis bassist/guitarist was clearly squirreling away for his own pet project.

In some respects, I can see how many of these tracks would not have worked under a Genesis umbrella - singer Noel McCalla's full throated vocals complement the songs here much more than Phil Collins' thinner, more reedy voice would have. (Not to slight Collins in the least, but I honesty can't hear him singing anything on Smallcreep's Day.)

Though it's Rutherford's name on the jacket (and all the songs are indeed his own), the show stealers are the two unrelated Phillips boys: a very playful Simon Phillips on drums (one of his finest performances ever, by the way) and Anthony Phillips leaving the stringed acoustics at home in favor of a surprise home run on keyboards. For sheer lushness, Phillips' string synth work here is completely off the grid! You'd think he was using three hands! The five or six times I've played this album for Genesis fans, each one pretty much said the same thing: Wow! Is that REALLY Anthony Phillips on keyboards? Quite the performance!

Actually better recorded than either Wuthering or There Were Three, Smallcreep's Day scores in a big big way. If you have a jones for some uber-high quality late '70s Genesis played by some of the original suspects, your search is over, Sherlock.

A most exuberant 4.5 stars from me.