FOXTROT

First, it is obvious from my comment above that i consider this album GENESIS' most amazing and inspired work. Selling England by the Pound comes very close, but it does not have the MAGIC that Foxtrot carries within itself. There's something with this album that makes me feel literally addicted to it. It has so many great melodies built, so many remarkable moments that make it remain intersting from the opening mellotron of "Watcher" until the fade-out of their magnum-opus, "Supper's Ready".

I remember that i disliked "Watcher of the Skies" a lot when i first listened to it. I couldn't stand its beating melody, i found it too repetitive and annoying. In fact, this is the album that took me the longest to get into. The only songs that i started enjoying soon were maybe "Get'em Out by Friday" and "Time Table", since the rest i found too hard to swallow. But as it happens with most of the most awesome progressive masterpieces, after some time and repeated listenings i discovered the album's true face, and became more satisfied with it. Things only went better when i read the really intelligent and creative lyrics by TONY BANKS and PETER GABRIEL. Both write very well, and when you mix such perfect lyrics with superb music then what we have is a heck of an awesome album. The opening song is now one of my all time favorites, the intro is great, it announces one of the most unique experiences you'll ever have with music. The outro of this song is also excellent, in a touching kind of melody rarely found on this side of symphonic prog. This moving fashion continues on "Time Table", with its inoccent style being not a prog tune at all, but very important to the album's substance. The third song, "Get'em Out by Friday" brings back the upbeat tone found on GENESIS' classics like the middle part of "Musical Box" or the strong closing track from Trespass "The Knife". The subject of the song is very unreal, though still maintaing a message using intelligent weirdness in the story. A mini-opera at its best, with amazing bass work by RUTHERFORD and again a superb keyboard playing by TONY BANKS. What we have after three masterpieces? Another one, and even better than the ones that came before. "Can..." shows that in six minutes GENESIS is able to top some of prog's classic epic long suits like "Close to the Edge", "Tarkus" and several other longs but not so great classics as this FOXTROT's 4th monster. And this is indeed a monster! It ends the album's first side with glory, containing dreamy lyrics (again being very well crafter), BANK's classic and moving keyboard solo and strong arrangements. But the best is still to arrive. "Supper's Ready" follows a short instrumental piece on the second side to prove that the guys can really let loose when it comes to epics. This is the band's only one, and neither KING CRIMSON's "Lizard" can compete with this piece of art. Each part is important, even the silly for some people "Willow Farm". Each one of them build this experience very well, i specially love the instrumental section on "Lover's Leap", it is very atmospheric and dreamy and shows that GABRIEL plays flute very well. "Apocalypse in 9/8" shows TONY BANKS best solo and it is one of GENESIS' most amazing moments, shivering our spines to no end. The experience ends with "As sure as eggs is eggs" with some of the beautiful words i've ever heard in music, leading to a moving fade-out.

This is GENESIS' perfect masterpiece. In my opinion Selling England is not even close to the greatness of Foxtrot, and i consider SEBTP the band's second best. I strongly recommend this, it may take a while to grow, but be patient and you'll few rewarded, since Foxtrot is symphonic prog at its best and deserves the unique 6 stars rating.

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