WIND & WUTHERING

Have you ever found an album that first, you thought wasn't more than average but with the more and more you listened to it you realized it was a true masterpiece? For me, this album was that only that it was the other way around.

When I was seventeen years old I was madly in love with GENESIS, I've listened to all of their studio albums (from "Trespass" to "A trick of the tail") and I considered all of them indisputable masterpieces of Prog, so when I heard "Wind & Wuthering" for the first time, my first natural response was to consider it another masterpiece, but here I am, ten years later and with a slightly different opinion about this album (and also about "Trespass" and "Nursery Cryme", that I don't consider masterpieces anymore).

One of the things that I like more about the whole Progressive Rock genre is that it is almost a rule that not only one but all of the members of a band have to be extremely creative and talented: no matter if we're talking about KING CRIMSON, ELP, PINK FLOYD, VDGG, GENTLE GIANT or GENESIS, every single musician that played in those bands was incredible in his own instrument or role, so the post-GABRIEL GENESIS had to be good with the four remaining members and in "A trick of the tail" COLLINS, RUTHERFORD, HACKETT and BANKS demonstrated what they were capable of doing without the most popular guy in the band, and what happened in "Wind & Wuthering"? Well, they got a very discreet lack of originality.

"Eleventh Earl of Mar", the album starts amazingly: the keyboards and percussions open the door and then Phil's vocals appear, the bass-line is delightful and the keyboards harmonize the song with a very enchanting melody. "One for the Vine" is extremely long for what it has to offer: the melody doesn't change a lot and it kind of loses itself in a musical wheel, maybe if it was two or three minutes shorter I would enjoy it more.

"Your own special way" is a beautiful romantic ballad, maybe I'm too in love with the whole "Selling England by the Pound" record, and comparing this song with "More fool me" is unfair, but if I take this song as a parameter the one from "Wind & Wuthering" sounds poor and much more oriented to the Pop music Phil COLLINS would play in his later solo albums (and it lasts twice as long). "Wot Gorilla?" is a short instrumental song that I would consider as entertaining but too little exciting.

"All in a mouse's night" brings back a lot of the "Foxtrot" and "Selling England" albums: Tony BANKS' keyboards are not the main instrument in the song but he really could give it a very unique touch. "Blood on the Rooftops" starts with a sweet classical guitar played by Steve HACKETT and then it changes to a more electric piece; once again we have a song that would have worked much better with a couple of minutes less in its length.

The transition from "Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers" and "In that quiet Earth" reminds me a lot of CAMEL's "The snow goose", except for the end of the second song, which sounds as it was part of one of the first solo albums of HACKETT; this is a very good song, but for a GENESIS record (and considering that in the A-side we had "Wot Gorilla?") this is a much larger amount of instrumental songs. "Afterglow" closes the album quite nicely: it is a very calm slow tempo melody that changes to a much stronger chorus part; the melody is excellent for being the closing track.

So, "Wind & Wuthering" is probably not one of the greatest records in GENESIS catalog, but it is nothing of a waste, maybe if it was a little shorter I could consider it a 5 stars album, but not every album could get such a rate.

SONG RATING: Eleventh Earl of Mar, 5 One for the Vine, 4 Your own special way, 4 Wot Gorilla? 4 All in a mouse's night, 5 Blood on the rooftops, 4 Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers, 3 In that quiet Earth, 4 Afterglow, 5

AVERAGE: 4.22

PERCENTAGE: 84.44

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars

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