FOXTROT

Foxtrot is often held up as either the best Genesis album, or one of them, but I personally prefer it SEBTP and Nursery Cryme. Foxtrot isn't bad at all, I just think it's a bit overrated, especially the nearly side-long Supper's Ready. I understand that it's one of the definitive records of prog and whatnot, but everyone's gonna have albums that just don't appeal to them like they appeal to others. Watcher of the Skies is a very nice song, but I don't think it's exactly great. Time Table is okay, but not really all that special. Get 'Em Out By Friday is again quite good, but it's not as great as similar songs like Return of the Giant Hogweed before it and Firth of Fifth after it. Can-Utility and the Coastliners is also a good song, but it's not great. And then, after a short guitar piece called Horizons, comes Supper's ready, the centerpiece. This song has been praised endlessly by fans of prog rock, as an epic masterpiece and one of the better stories ever made, but I think that this song has a bit of, not exactly filler- however, there's not enough really good, meaty material to fill 23 minutes of music- while parts 3, 5, 6, and 7 are very good, part 1 is only okay to me- however, I don't usually like soft, love-oriented songs, so your mileage may vary. Part 2 is good, but not as good as the rest of the song. Part 3 is a very good, energetic piece, but part 4 is one of the things that I simply don't understand- it's a soft, quiet piece, that I don't find all that interesting. Willow Farm (part 5) is a quirky, very good part, followed by the great Apocalypse in 9/8 (part 6) and it's legendary organ solo. Part 7 concludes the song well, with some great vocals from Gabriel. So, for the most part, Supper's Ready is good, but not excellent- 3.5 stars, rounded down to three.