WIND & WUTHERING

If "A trick of the tail" had shown that Genesis were by no means a spent force without Peter Gabriel, "Wind and Wuthering" showed that they were if anything stronger.

With more space for each band member to express themselves, Tony Banks was the one to take most advantage of this; composing or jointly composing most of the tracks, many of which are dominated by his keyboard work. One of his best ever pieces "One for the Vine" is here. It features some superb keyboards, and a tale which seeks to offer an imaginative explanation for some religious beliefs. Banks is quoted as saying that he put everything into this track, as some of the parts might have been dropped by the band had he offered them as separate pieces. The track is reminiscent in some ways of "White Mountain" from "Trespass".

"Eleventh Earl of Mar" is a fairly typical Genesis opening track, upbeat with plenty of vocals, and a historical tale to tell. Mike Rutherford's "Your own special way" is a rather mushy ballad, pleasant but a bit uninspired. In retrospect, the outtake "Inside and out" would have been a better track to include.

If you ignore the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon based lyrics of "All in a mouse's night", it's actually a decent number. The lengthy mellotron solo at the end brings to mind "Seven stones" from "Nursery Cryme".

Steve Hackett's "Blood on the rooftops" is a melancholy number, very atmospheric, and sympathetically sung by Collins who gives one of his finest performances here.

Hackett's lead guitar only really comes to the fore on the lengthy three part closing track(s). This trilogy dominates the second side of the LP, being predominantly instrumental. The gradual build up and transition to "Afterglow" represents some of Genesis finest and most progressive work. On its own "Afterglow" would have been pleasant in the "Follow you follow me" mode, but as part of this piece, it is a wonderful closer.

There are many highly memorable Genesis moments on this album, the band once again managing to squeeze an extra 10 minutes onto the normal length for an LP. Classic Genesis indeed!

Unfortunately, Hackett would leave the band after this album, and then there were three. . .

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