GENESIS

Unfortunately, the downfall of Genesis continues with this 1983, self-titled disaster. At this point, the only inspiration that the band had left was the large cash-ins they would get for making this commercial and uninspired pop music. Genesis (often nicknamed Mama) is possibly the worst album that Genesis has ever created, although some of the other 3-man albums are pretty close. I will never be able to comprehend how Genesis went from creating some of the finest albums on the face of the earth to creating an irritating failure like this.

Abacab gave us a taste of disaster, but Genesis gives us entire meal of disastrous and trivial pop music. Even the best songs (Home By The Sea and Second Home By The Sea) are very weak. It's such a shame that this album is so terrible, because I do immensely enjoy And Then There Were Three and Duke. I'm afraid to say that any Genesis albums after that severely miss the mark.

If you're unfamiliar with what Genesis sounds like at this point, it's simply 80's pop music and nothing more. There are occasional prog leanings, but they are scarce and unsatisfactory. I can always respect a good pop album from The Beatles, Boston, or U2, but Genesis is far from reaching that level of high-quality pop music. This is just a trivial and boring album with no variation, along with terrible 80's production qualities. The production isn't a big deal, though. I'm sure I wouldn't like this album even if it sounded professionally produced.

This album consists of 9 songs, all of which are very weak. The Home By The Sea suite is decent, but it's nothing worthwhile. Songs like Mama, Illegal Alien, and That's All make me want to puke after the first few seconds. It amazes me that this is the same band that made Cinema Show and Supper's Ready! All of the songs are simple verse-chorus-verse structures, with little to no variation. There are a few exceptions, but this is about as simple as pop music can get.

The musicianship, like everything else, is a disappointment. Tony Banks plays the lead instrument on most of this album, yet he does nothing special throughout the entire course of the playing time. Phil Collins' drumming is far too simple and predictable. His vocals can be good at times, but they are too overproduced and the melodies are too straightforward. Mike Rutherford doesn't do anything noteworthy either.

Conclusion:

Genesis is a terrible album, and just shows what a tough decade the 80's were for any prog fan. I don't give out 1 star reviews out often, but I couldn't give this album any more than that. I basically save my 1 star reviews for albums like this! This album is best avoided, unless you're an 80's pop fanatic. This is probably the worst Genesis album.

1 star.

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