WIND & WUTHERING

One album that passed me by at the time was Wind & Wuthering. Sure I heard it but even after several plays it never stuck in the memory like some of their albums, and I never really listened to it again until now. After so many years listening to it again, it still comes across as a rather anonymous album, without the style of their previous outings. Maybe Trick of the Tail was such a huge effort, maybe they put their all into it after Peter Gabriel departed, that there was just nothing left.

Tony Banks just does not seem on top form, and after Gabriel's departure, he was their main driving force. "Eleventh Earl of Mar" starts (and finishes) with a haunting melody but there's little of substance in the middle; "Afterglow" is pretty good, as is "One for the Vine"; but it isn't Banks (or Genesis) at their best. No, the best tracks on the album come from others - Mike Rutherford's "You're On Special Way" and the sublime "Blood on the Rooftops" by Collins and Hackett.

Banks' songwriting could always tend toward being too sweet - the title song to Trick of the Tail was never my favourite - but here in "All In A Mouse's Night" there's a new low. The song tells the tale (should I say tail? Ho ho) of a mouse's expeditions at night:

"The door's been opened, my chance to escape, Must run quick, better sorry than late"

I for one didn't find it amusing; if the thought was this song was witty, it's badly mistaken. I thought Yes' "Don't Kill The Whale" was awful but this song hits a new low in cruelty to animals in songs of which fortunately there are very few in Prog - Floyd's album dedicated to four legged beasts being a notable, successful exception.

Another thing - for some reason the keyboards just do not seem to have quite the same sweet sound as previous albums - different keyboards or different production, I'm not sure why.

There are two linked instrumentals - "Unquiet Slumbers." and "In That Quiet Earth" - after several airings I have to say the latter sounds like a ho-hum day in the rehearsal room.

The album cover shows a late Autumn scene with a few last leaves falling away - symbolic of Genesis music at the time? Steve Hackett's departure followed of course, after which Genesis really did start to head towards mainstream pop, but listen carefully and there's the beginnings here.

I'm still giving this 3 stars because even though it's a disappointment to me, it still has some mighty fine moments; but you'd have to write "could do better" on the school report.