Genesis

Abacab

Genesis revitalizes with clean new sound

Review Score:

(6/10)
Genesis went through a transition on the "...and Then There Were Three" and "Duke" albums, writing shorter songs than in the past and picking up the intensity on the recordings (especially Phil Collins' vocals). On "Abacab", they completed the process. "Abacab" provided the sound that paved the way for Genesis' pop success in the 80s and early 90s. The band had not been satisfied with how tinny "Duke" sounded on the radio, and came up with a production style, including new ways to process the drum sounds, that resulted in a fantastic crisp, clear sound. Digital synthesizers were now available (great for buzzy sounds like those on "Abacab" and "Dodo"), and gave Tony Banks a lot better sound than the wimpy Polymoog used on "Duke". And the band also changed its way of playing -- rather than showing off their chops by playing as much as possible, they simplified the arrangements and left a lot of space in the recording, similar to the approach used by the Police. Mike Rutherford made the biggest sacrifice to the sound. On "Another Record", he only plays guitar on the intro, on "Man on the Corner" only on the closing, on "Who Dunnit?" and possibly "No Reply at All" not at all (his bass playing on the latter is amazing). There are none of the fiery leads he provided on "Duke", though he gets in a decent solo on the title track.

On songs such as "Abacab" and "Dodo/Lurker", the new approach resulted in songs that were among Genesis' best. "Abacab" has Rutherford and Banks trading simple licks to great effect, though the long instrumental ending hadn't yet been fully realized (the live version, with a lot more interplay between the musicians, was a highlight of the next three tours). "Lurker" couples a synthesizer theme with a lyric right out of "The Hobbit"'s game of riddles. But overall, the material on the album isn't as strong as on most of their albums. It's not BAD, it's just not up to the usual standard. Genesis recorded a lot of extra songs, and chose for the albums the ones that they felt people would least expect to hear from Genesis (for example, the dance beat and Earth Wind & Fire horns of "No Reply at All"). In doing so, they left off some songs that were better than many of the ones that made the album. Replace "Who Dunnit?" and "Another Record" with "Paperlate" and "You Might Recall" and this becomes a much stronger album. "Who Dunnit?" is a throwaway done as a goof, and it's perhaps the weakest cut Genesis ever put on an album. "Another Record" is memorable mostly for Collins' drum work. "Keep It Dark" matches a syncopated 6/4 guitar riff with a lyric about a missing man who tells his loved ones he'd been kidnapped because the utopian alien planet he was ACTUALLY brought to was too beautiful for life on Earth to compare to. "Me and Sarah Jane" is one of those catchy Banks pieces made up of several musical snippets thrown together, like "Burning Rope"; the lyric is...who knows? Something about a man and his imaginary girlfriend drowning together. Think of it as a practice run for the lyrics about incipient madness on "Domino". Each band member has one solo composition on the album, and the rest were co-written; after this album, all Genesis songs were always co-written by the band.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

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