A TRICK OF THE TAIL

A Trick of the Tail was my first Genesis album. At 15 years old, I was more into King Crimson and YES. A neighbor kept talking about Genesis and how I would love it. Sure. As a kid, money was tight, so it took a while to finally make the jump into Genesis. From the first few bars of Dance on a Volcano, I was hooked. Power, speed, rhythmic shifts, unusual lyrics and good vocals... everything I dug about YES and KC. Cool!

Genesis was also very good at shades of darkness and light, shifting from Dance on a Volcano's hard edge to Entangled's tinkling keys, tinkling percussion, ethereal synths and janglely acoustics guitars. It don't get any better.

Squonk, that "imaginary being" song, has always been my favorite from the album. As an adolescent first hearing those lyrics, I could relate to the strangeness I felt about just being me, "what's the difference when you don't know the reason?" During puberty we are all squonks, pools of emotion. Anyway...

Mad Man Moon takes you on a Pan-like journey of the mind. I love the bridge from this tune. Banks keyboards standout brilliantly. Robbery, Assault and Battery is a bit of fun, but may well be the weakest track here. Ripples returns to the softer side of prog, lilting and filled with lyrical imagery and subdued instrumental expression. A Trick of the Tail took awhile to click for me, but it's message is still appropriate for the turbulent times of today. Los Endos is an excellent instrumental, which cleverly recaptures elemts of the complete album.

4.5 stars... Every prog fan should own this one.