SUPPERS READY (GENESIS TRIBUTE)

There is precisely one reason to get this album; Kevin Gilberts masterful version of Back in NYC. Everything else on here hews far too close to the original sources (Firth of Fifth, Entangled) or tries to experiment without having the musical or artistic chops to carry it off (I Know What I Like). Some are just plain awful. Carpet Crawlers sounds not unlike the faux-operatic stylings of Antony and the Jonsons, with a forced vibrato to hide the fact that the singer can't hit a single note.

Also, many of the song selections are odd (For Absent Friends? Ripples?), even though I have to admit that there's something brave about picking late-period Genesis pieces if your intended audience is probably Prog heads. But if you do, why reel off note-for- note renditions of Mama and Keep it Dark? Both songs are very sparse in their original versions, and therefore lend themselves to much playing around. Imagine someone having the balls to reimagine Mama if it were on Nursery Cryme.

Yes, it is sad to say that the one flash of genius on this entire collection comes from a man who passed away far too soon. It's brilliant enough that it made the purchase worth it for me, second hand and cheap. But the rest of the album will never be listened to in this house again, except maybe as a warning example to someone planning a concept album.