SECONDS OUT

I remember walking into a book store in the month of April 2009, looking for some books, some albums, anything that fits my mood. I remember walking through a book counter and hearing something unknown yet familiar. It sounded celestial, with that 12 string guitar, and those lyrics, "Hello baby, with your guardian eyes so blue. Hey my baby, don't you know our love is true.". I hurried to ask the man at the counter what this heavenly music is, and he said, "Supper's Ready" by Genesis. I have only heard of the song, so I didn't know what to expect, and when I heard this, it surprised me, in a very good way. I kept walking around in the store looking at the books and the CDs, but all that was in my mind at those exact moments were the music. I straight away knew, that prog is my love. Having heard prog artists like Camel and Uriah Heep I decided to pick up a few albums, so I approached the man at the counter and asked, "Do you happen to have this album on CD to sell?", and he replied: "Seconds Out, no, sadly, we don't have it.". Ever since I have looked for the album, but have failed to find, and only saw Genesis classics like Trespass, Foxtrot, and Nursery Cryme. One day, I was in a vinyl store, just looking around, and I saw this album, for 20 NIS, which is around 5 dollars. Of course I had to buy it, and I did, but it was left out and wasn't even given a single spin. About 2 weeks after the purchase, I ran into the vinyl during a clean up and decided to give it a spin. Starting with a track from A Trick of the Tail sort of bummed me out, but then Carpet Crawlers started playing, and I knew that this album was worth the endless searching.

The track listing is rather good actually, featuring Genesis classics like Supper's Ready and The Musical Box, but also "new" tracks like Squonk and Los Endos. The album also has Chester Thompson and Bill Bruford guesting as drummers on a few tracks, Bruford's being The Cinema Show and Thompson being the main drummer when Phil Collins is too busy singing. The playing here sounds grandiose, especially on Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford's parts, but most chances are that it's just the echo in the room.

As I said earlier, the version of Supper's Ready is more than excellently played and it is heard that the band has practiced many times to get it right, and when the night came, it was time to rock n' roll, and they rocked properly. You Yes and King Crimson fans, don't expect Bruford's high-pitched snare sound on The Cinema Show, as he was just doing Phil a favor by drumming on that track, not making this a King Crimson gig.

A lot of people hesitate on which Genesis live album they should buy, and most of the time people go on and buy Genesis Live, but this is the real treat, and while this may not have Peter Gabriel singing, or Peter Gabriel's composition (on some tracks), the band does a very good job at safekeeping Gabriel's legacy. While this may not be a progressive rock masterpiece, it is a great piece of music to introduce you to Collins-era Genesis and maybe even Genesis in general. 4/5, and maybe Genesis Live is better, but from the many times I've listened to it, Seconds Out is the better live album.

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