Genesis

Trick of the Tail

Squonk me with a chainsaw...

Review Score:

(10/10)
When Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, most observers figured the band was through. But by the time the news broke, the band was already a month into work on a new album. Unable to settle on a replacement singer, the group finally concluded that drummer Phil Collins was better than the people they were auditioning. The resulting album ended up outselling any of their albums with Gabriel.

This is a wonderful album, from the moment the first punches of "Dance on a Volcano" jump out of Mike Rutherford's gentle guitar intro, to Collins revisiting "Supper's Ready" lyrics during the fade-out of "Los Endos". Strong rockers like "Dance on a Volcano", "Squonk", and "Los Endos" are intermixed with magical ballads like "Entangled" and "Ripples". David Hentschel's production is clearer than on most previous Genesis albums; in particular, Collins' drums are more audible in the mix than ever before. With Gabriel's strong personality gone, keyboardist Tony Banks began to dominate the band; he worked keyboard solos into everyone else's songs, and got a couple of long-dormant songs of his own ("A Trick of the Tail", "Mad Man Moon") onto the album. But everything Banks does works here (not always the case on the follow-up, "Wind and Wuthering"). A side effect of Banks' emergence was that guitarist Steve Hackett got fewer leads to play; on "Mad Man Moon", he barely appears. Hackett and Rutherford use the trademark Genesis dual 12-string acoustic sound to great effect on Hackett's "Entangled" and Rutherford's "Ripples". "Los Endos" provides a big finish with a blazing instrumental that uses a riff from "It's Yourself" (a song that was left off the album, but is available on the "Archive #2" boxed set) and throws in reprises of "Dance on a Volcano" and "Squonk"; the song became the closer of Genesis' live set for over a decade. For lovers of time signatures, "Dance on a Volcano" and the bridge of "Mad Man Moon" are in 7/8, while the keyboard solo in "Robbery Assault & Battery" is in a near-uncountable 13/8. This is a close second to "Foxtrot" as my favorite Genesis album.

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

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