TRESPASS

Overall, Genesis is a symphonic-rock band, but if I had to classify the band based only on Trespass, I'd probably go with proto-prog. Although this band would be considered a trailblazer in just a few years, Trespass finds Genesis absorbing and refashioning the kind of music the Moody Blues, the Nice, and Procol Harum were making at the time. In fact, Trespass doesn't strike me as symphonic until halfway through "Visions of Angels," the last song on the first side. 

It's at that point that Tony Banks begins to more regularly use a wider variety of  keyboards, and the backing vocals become more choral. The following two songs, "Stagnation" and "Dusk," generally follow this trend, and fittingly, they're a bit more ponderous than those on the first side. Finally, on "The Knife," the last song on Trespass, we get a good look at the Genesis to come. While there are some flashes of brilliance on the first five songs, the difference between them and "The Knife" is stark. Luckily, the band chose "The Knife" as its direction for its next few albums. 

Most of the strengths of Trespass relate directly to lead singer and lyricist Peter Gabriel. Gabriel's somewhat rough voice demands a lot of space, and on Trespass there are plenty of passages during which the instrumentation is relatively unassuming, at least for Genesis. This works well, giving Gabriel the legroom he needs, not only for his voice, but for the listener to absorb his lyrics. Just four years later, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway would suffer from the near-impossibly of balancing the band's complex arrangements with the desire to highlight Gabriel's voice. But for most of Trespass, this isn't much of an issue. The lyrics (which I'm assuming were written by Gabriel) are perceptive and smart - - but generally not pedantic.

If Genesis had broken up after releasing Trespass, I might rate it higher, but unfairly or not, I consider it nonessential simply because there's nothing here - - not even "The Knife" - - that Genesis wouldn't surpass several times over their next three albums. In nearly every respect, Trespass seems to have served as a necessary prototype for their best Gabriel-era albums: Selling England by the Pound and Foxtrot. So this is one for Genesis fans and Peter Gabriel fans. For anyone else, I'd suggest starting with Foxtrot or Selling England.