Genesis

And Then There Were Three

Goodbye Steve, Hello Mike!!

Review Score:

(8/10)
This was the first album released by Genesis after the departure of lead guitarist Steve Hackett. As such, it is almost as much of a milestone in Genesis history as "A Trick of the Tail". Steve's departure was not seen as a "death knell" by the press and most of their fans, as Peter Gabriel's was. I think a lot of the reason for this is the fact that Genesis, by this point, had proved that every single member of the band was a virtuoso in his own right, and thus could survive the loss of another member.

Don't get me wrong - losing Steve made a huge impact on the Genesis sound. But, Mike Rutherford showed that he could step up from his bass guitar playing and take over the lead just fine, thanks. Mike's guitar has a much more modern, metallic feel to it than Steve's expansive, flowing sound. This change pretty much had the effect of severing Genesis' music from everything they had done before. The change in their sound was so drastic that it's hard to imagine the "trio" Genesis ever going back and doing anything like "One For The Vine" or "Supper's Ready", though they did not lose touch entirely with their progressive roots.

This album is also a milestone in that is the first Genesis album that does not contain any long, flowing instrumental sections that had been one of the best things about their music. Instead, they chose to go with a lot of shorter, radio-friendly songs. One of these songs, the excellent "Follow You, Follow Me" became Genesis' first big hit single. In addition to this classic track, some other highlights of the album include "Burning Rope", "Down and Out", "Deep in the Motherlode", and "Scenes from a Night's Dream", which is an interesting blend of progressive and pop music.

This album is rightly seen as the birth of the modern Genesis. While it's not my favorite Genesis album, it does contain several gem songs. If you're interested in intelligent, well-written music, this album (like the rest of the Genesis catalogue) is a must-have.

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