This is Genesis' fourth album, their second for Charisma, and the second as a mature band. The tracks (I omit the word 'songs' purposely) on 'Foxtrot' seem more accessible, more defined, than on their last album, 'Nursery Cryme'.January, 1973
This is Genesis' fourth album, their second for Charisma, and the second as a mature band. The tracks (I omit the word 'songs' purposely) on 'Foxtrot' seem more accessible, more defined, than on their last album, 'Nursery Cryme'.
The opener, 'Watcher In The Skies' [sic], is a beautifully constructed Sci-Fi tale presented against glittering sheets of cascading sound, running in torrents like a burst dam, across the aural spectrum; it rolls and boils and flows like thick velvet of varying colors.
By contrast, 'Time Table', is simplicity itself - Tony Banks' medieval piano behind Pete Gabriel's voice spinning its web of wonder.
But it's 'Get 'Em Out By Friday' that is the real gem of the album ( even though Side Two holds a marvelous seven part suite). It is, in fact, an execution, a mini-opera with six characters represented. On the surface, the struggle concerns Styx Enterprises (represented by Mr. John Pebble and Mr. Mark Hall) who have just bought an apartment building, and Mrs. Barrow (a tenant) who's threatened with eviction. But this is the year 2012, and Genetic Control has put a "four foot restriction on humanoid height." And why, pray tell? Because G.C. had the foresight to buy up housing property and now can get double the number of tenants in each building. The track ends with the reading of a memo from Satin Peter of Rock Developments Ltd.: "With land in your hand you'll be happy on earth / Then invest in the Church for your heaven."
All this is presented unceremoniously, unpretentiously and with the utmost professionalism. Throughout there are acres of marvelous musicianship, both ensemble and solos. But Genesis really transcends such banal and pedestrian inventions as categories.
This is, needless to say, an important album to listen to. Maybe you'll dig it, maybe you won't, but this is the kind of band (especially now) that we need to support. And the word is that they're even better live. This I've gotta see. And I will.
- Eric Van Lustblader
Typed up by Thomas Holter, from a copy of another article in the archives of Jeff Kaa.
