A TRICK OF THE TAIL

This is one of the early Genesis albums that's very hard to rate. It has some moments of brilliance, but it also has weaker parts. Furthermore the recording is done quite bad. The strange out of space sound of tracks like Dance on a Vulcano and Squonk is just horrible. Why this thick, sticky recording? Why not record all instruments in a way it doesn't sound like one big blur? Is this modern? It does give the record an early pre-neoprog sound.

Two songs are standouts on this album. Dance of a Vulcano is a very progressive track with a great main theme in 5/8. Throughout the track new melodies make this a very enjoyable song. Follow-up Entangled is one of my favourite Genesis tracks. The great gentle acoustic guitar parts in the beginning with the warm vocals of Phil Collings are truly emotional and effect my mood. The symphonic solo parts are uncomplicated but very effective. This is a great progressive ballad!

From this point the quality begins to decline. Squonk has both good parts and bad parts but mainly suffers from 'modern' recording technologies and far-far-far-away lyrics from Phil Collins. Mad Man Moon is a bit better with a Kayak-like piano part in the middle of the song, but this song also introduces the mellow Genesis ballad style that would begin to bore on Wind and Wuthering.

Robbery Assault and Battery isn't my cup of thee. I don't like the structure and the vocals on this song. The compositions has some potential though. Ripples isn't very memorable as is the title track that has just a nice main theme. The instrumental ending (Los Endos) is as good as the first two tracks and has a very progressive sound. Most of the melodies and sounds are taken from other songs of the album.

Conclusion. An album with highlights and songs that leave me indifferent. The recording could have been much better and more human. This would have saved it from losing a star and going to three stars. Some tracks are quite essential progressive listening, others are not so important. Still this is must-have for fans of the band, excellent for fans of the genre and interesting for those interested in the neo-progressive genre. Three stars.

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