GENESIS

Genesis

Symphonic Prog

2.79 | 1455 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

I like most things Genesis have done, except most of Abacab (especially Who Dunnit, which I hated so much I have created a CD which omits that track).

That being said, my take on Genesis (or Shapes), is that it's a very good record, it's just not what some people wanted. It may be part of their departure from prog, but if you just take it for what it is there are some very strong tracks and the album is genuinely enjoyable to listen to as a whole. My favourite era is Trick/Wind, I'm also very partial to Nursery Cryme, but I still find myself coming back to this one time and time again.

Even the much hated Illegal Alien is simply better than if other groups had written the same thing. It's a silly, shallow pop song - any meaning it may have had is lost due to the borderline embarassing stereotyped voice. At the same time, the key changes and the slight delay in them compared to the vocals are simply something other bands wouldn't or couldn't have done.

Mama has a menacing and desolate sound - again it's no Supper's Ready, but even as a 'pop' song it has real quality. Of course to put things in context, people need to remember that mainstream pop sounded nothing like this, and rather more like Nik Kershaw. A lot of people seem to forget that when they use the 'pop' label at things.

Finally, the Home By The Sea pair of tracks are fantastic. It's not the old Genesis, don't expect it to be, listen to it on it's own merits and you find a song with a story to tell and some great music to back it up.

I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an axe to grind over their change in musical direction, but avoid the smileyface EQ / loudness war remasters, and avoid the awful sounding Vertigo/Target release. The original masterings are spot on (Nimbus and EMI which is a level shifted Nimbus). The ATCOs aren't bad if that's what you can easily find.

Despite the fact that I do love this album, I'm going to give it 3 stars because it's not a pure prog release, or even half way there. I'd give it 4.5 if genre was unimportant.

system11 | 3/5 | 2011-3-15

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