A TRICK OF THE TAIL

Following the departure of Peter GABRIEL, and letting more than a year pass for the other shoe to drop, the remaining quartet returned with "A Trick of the Tail", conceding nothing. The album begins with the explosive "Dance on a Volcano", a tour de force that conceals one of Steve HACKETT's more riveting musical nightmares. The remaining tracks, credited here to individual members for the first time, form a series of vignettes rather than a unifying concept. It's a less ambitious effort than "Lamb..", but in that regard there was nowhere to go but down.

"Trick..." is still a treat for GENESIS fans, including such classics as the title track and "Robbery, Assault & Battery". The songs written by the trio of BANKS, COLLINS and RUTHEFORD foreshadow the music to come, fuzzy and large-sounding creations like "Squonk" and "Mad Man Moon". In between are two very pretty numbers, the mischievous "Entangled" typical of HACKETT's warped tunes and the gentle "Ripples". It all comes to a close with "Los Endos", reprising the opening theme in the same way that "Selling England..." did.

Some fans are quite fond of this record, though I'd give their next the distinction of best post-GABRIEL album. If it's not classic GENESIS, it's not far removed from it either, a somehow intimate antidote to the political/social statements of past efforts.