And Then There Were Three - Underrated??

ExittheLemming wrote: I'd choose good Pop over bad Prog any day of the week.

One of my favorite Genesis albums, with several of my favorite songs of theirs.  I won't go so far as to say it's "underrated" because that would presume that everyone else should feel like I do.  Which they should, but I'm not going to come out and say that.

'Progginess' - what an awful word.


I like ATTWT quite much, it's definitely more consistent than "Wind & Wuthering", whose Side A doesn't impress me a lot as a whole.

"Scenes From A Night's Dream" is incredibly good art pop, "Undertow" is a gorgeous ballad, "Burning Rope" and "Down And Out" could be the best keyboard-driven progressive rock which is played on cheesy late-1970s keyboards. The narrative lyrics, especially in "Deep In The Motherlode" and "Down And Out", try too hard to be compelling stories, but turn out quite cheesy in the end... but they don't hurt me a lot.

Still, I'm getting more and more dissatisfied by the 2007 remix. Way too much compression, especially the drums in "Undertow" are ridiculously loud and crashing. Suppose the original LP gets the best out of this very good, but unexpectedly 'American'-sounding record.



Edited by Einsetumadur - April 18 2013 at 07:17

stegor wrote: It was my first Genesis album so I have a real soft spot for it. It was brand new when I got it. At the time I wasn't really aware of their history, or that earlier albums included Steve Hackett or Peter Gabriel, so I didn't have that preconceived notion that they were barely a ghost of what they were. So I was able to appreciate it for what it was and not what it could have been.I don't know if it's underrated, it seems pretty highly regarded here anyway. I'll say at least the vinyl pressing I had suffered badly from thin groove syndrome. It was almost an hour long, beyond the limits of vinyl, so the bass is lacking. Some of the songs sound terribly thin, especially the denser ones like Undertow. But I did, and still do like some of the songs a lot. I even liked Snowbound and Say it's Alright Joe, recently mentioned in the "Cringe" thread.Many Too Many and Undertow are both beautiful ballads and Burning Rope and The Lady Lies are cool.It doesn't stack up to anything with Hackett in it though. There's hardly any guitar on it except for Rutherford's trademark arpeggios.Then I got Selling England and found out what real Genesis was.

It was the first Genesis album I ever heard too, and partly for that reason I love it too.

I can understand the rating it has here when sat alongside the rest of the bands albums, being reviewed by die hard proggers. For me personally it's a very solid 4 star effort. I still play it quite frequently.

I'll never forget the first time I heard Down and Out. The deep pulsing 5/4 beat and the swathes of synth. I'd not really heard anything like that before. This was about 1985, and I knew Collins would become one of my favourite drummers based on his performance in that song.

The unusually long playing time of the record worked out well for me because I used to put my records on one side of a C-90 cassette, which was 45 - 50 minutes, just right for most records. This one is over 50 minutes long, so it cut Follow You Follow Me off after about the first 2 seconds of it. Just enough!

I think the put it at the end to say "This is it, folks! from here on this is what you're gonna get." I didn't like Duke.

"Hey, there's a Snowman..."

Edited by Melomaniac - April 18 2013 at 09:03

HolyMoly wrote: When I first heard that 5/4 riff on "Down and Out", particularly Phil's drum part, I thought my record was skipping.

It's funny you should say that. I remember playing that song to two people, convinced it would really impress them, and that's the first thing they both said! The record is jumping!! I was quite disappointed by their reaction, but I guess I can see why they said it..

I sometimes skip Snowbound, Scenes from a nights dream & Ballad of Big, but the rest I really like even Follow you Follow me..

I love it, and it is one of my favorite Genesis albums. It is special to me.

Snow Dog wrote: Never   was  a  favourite of mine. The first genesis album to  dissapoint me. Hackett was so  evidently missing. They lost that soundscape he seemed to provide.

I agree, never been a big fan. Duke is much better.