TRESPASS

This is my personal favorite Genesis album, and also their only LP which I still listen quite frequently. It doesn't even have Phil Collins on drums yet, which may make it musically little different than their later albums, where his influence began (sadly?) to grow.

"Trespass" holds an eerie and mystic overall feeling on it. Musical emotions flow pleasantly from impressionistic pastorals to more aggressive and dramatic theatrical scenes. Lyrics work also as nice poetry, supporting the music's style and the tracks form an artistically contact album. The opener "Looking for Someone" peeks curiously behind Peter's powerful lyrical fronting, the orchestra keeping first quite quiet presence. The composition shifts between different musical emphasizes logically, escaping the mess of poorly considered symphonic epic mess, too often found from vinyl surfaces of progressive rock group's releases. "White Mountain" is musically eerie and beautiful, focusing to drama of ruthless power play, reflected to the society of wolves. "Visions of Angels" softens the listening experience by the blessings of its fragile beautifulness and religious harmony and piety. I felt the drum parts here were arranged wonderfully to choral mass of the song, rolling with bit clumsy but within time keeping fills and variations on rhythm's emphasis on beat aiming. On the B-side the vinyl starts rolling with "Stagnation", a hazy wandering in thicket of acoustic guitar chords, introducing the amplified band and compositional twists with patience. "Dusk" floats slowly and solemn as solitary rising moon, being very beautiful and tender bucolic vision. Final song "The Knife", which I think is the most aggressive Genesis song ever written, is a song about a violent revolution. Surprisingly, due its lyrical teachings, I remember reading an article where it was described as a "battle anthem" of Italian left wing radicals during the 1970's.

The album's cover art is also truly great in aesthetic way, and it describes the music presented in the vinyl it covers perfectly. To its leather surface is painted a rough, gothic style of scene with spared tones of grey, and this painting is slashed with a dagger. The iconoclast of traditional art with a symbol referring to the final song seems as clever inspiration. Within the opening album gatefold covers one finds a pastoral painting done in the same manner as the front cover, featuring also the knife.

I seriously recommend this record, especially to those who dislike the later classic recordings of the band. I guess this could also please the fans of the early King Crimson albums, as it has lots of acoustic guitars, flutes and mellotrons on it, resembling the sound textures of their tamer acoustic ballads.