And Then There Were Three: Underappreciated?

Inspired by the Genesis thread in the Prog Music Lounge, does ATTWT get the credit it deserves? Bemoaned by many by the absence of Hackett and said to be "not quite prog", I feel quite the opposite. Opening the album with "Down and Out" in a loopy nerve wrecking 5/4 time is as prog as you can get to me. The  majority of songs, albeit of short duration, have an unmistakable Genesis vibe to them such as with the "Lady Lies" and "Burning Rope", while "Deep in the Motherlode" evokes a type of psychedelia processed through the Genesis filter.

Edited by SteveG - January 27 2017 at 13:12

Many have tried to convince me. Same with Duke. They both just make me cringe with wonky faux-nouveau keyboard sounds.

Many of the songs sound even more prog than ever before. I guess it actually gets a bit of an ELP vibe because of the power trio format, and how the keyboards were boosted into the front more than ever before.

Not good Prog. Proto Neo-Prog? I guess so, since Home By the Sea was actual Neo-Prog! To me it's not good, The guitar is a big part of the difference. Rutherford's guitar work, at least at that time, was terribly ordinary, uninspired and drab. The loss of Hackett's general creative input was also noticeable. No more interesting odd sounding stuff. The songs were too short and lost their eloquence. There was nothing like Entangled and certainly nothing like the intro to Blood On the Rooftops anymore. Hackett's Please Don't Touch, though not his best, was a far more memorable album, frankly.

Now my turn. I love ATTWT. The idea of shorter composition never bothered me. It's what the band does within that streamlined formula. ATTWT nailed complexity, catchiness, and a whole new direction in doing so.
Banks loves Fountain of Salmacis as much as he does the Domino epic.
Neo-Prog relied heavily on Gabriel-Genesis ideals. Genesis themselves, brought 'Prog' into the 80's, albeit in an accessible package. They moved on, whilst others retread the past. Win / Win situation.

I've always loved it. It's not perfect, but there are some killer songs on that album. I wouldn't say it's uner appreciated. I unerstand why some 'prog purists' may not like it, or die hard Gabriel fanatics, but for a band in transition it's a very strong work, as is ATOTT for similar reasons.

SteveG wrote: Inspired by the Genesis thread in the Prog Music Lounge, does ATTWT get the credit it deserves? Bemoaned by many by the absence of Hackett and said to be "not quite prog", I feel quite the opposite. Opening the album with "Down and Out" in a loopy nerve wrecking 5/4 time is as prog as you can get to me. The  majority of songs, albeit of short duration, have an unmistakable Genesis vibe to them such as with the "Lady Lies" and "Burning Rope", while "Deep in the Motherlode" evokes a type of psychedelia processed through the Genesis filter. All good stuff to me. How about you?

ATTWT is a pretty great album. The atmospheres are there in all the numbers.

Sometimes I have the feeling that they're a little truncated and the thing could have been a 2 LP set (it is already 50 or so minutes long).

Anyway there's no feeling that Hackett's lead is way too buried...

Poor old Rutherford. Having to be a bass god, harmony guitar god and lead guitar god. Not easy. The pressure from the keyboard dude who only has one job, while the vocal god and drum god shares his double duties.

"Phil" is a great name for a drummer.

Other than the UK efforts and Tormato this was the end... until 1980 and Genesis showed there were new ways of doing things. But unless they did things the old way they would be nothing. (!)...

 At least they did their own thing unlike Cinema who got a well used sales logo their rhythm section and organist once had and initiated one of the more schizophrenic rock experiences... 

Son.of.Tiresias wrote: Blacksword wrote: I've always loved it. It's not perfect, but there are some killer songs on that album. I wouldn't say it's uner appreciated. I unerstand why some 'prog purists' may not like it, or die hard Gabriel fanatics, but for a band in transition it's a very strong work, as is ATOTT for similar reasons. I am a die hard GENESIS fanatic and I bloody hell don´t miss Gabriel doing his lousy NW noodling at the time. Solsbury Hill stainless steel Lamb please

What?

Personally I´m a huge fan of this one as well as of Duke. It didn´t use to be that way, but ..and then there where three is among my favorite Genesis albums today. The cool futuristic sounds, the intricate compositions, which may initially come of as accessible pop/rock, but if examined a bit deeper, are very sophisticated and cleverly written pieces of pop/rock prog. It´s just another type of progressive rock but still unmistakably the sound of Genesis.

Edited by UMUR - April 10 2017 at 13:18