Genesis

Trick of the Tail

Goodbye Peter, Hello Phil!

Review Score:

(10/10)
This album was, as all good Genesis fans know, the first album produced after Peter Gabriel left the band during their tour to support "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". Many in the press and in the general public had pretty much written Genesis off after Peter's departure. As strange as this may seem now, it was not so hard to believe at the time. During the band's previous career, Peter had affected a powerful stage presence due to his use of makeup, props, and costumes. It was widely believed at the time that Peter pretty much wrote everything and that Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins were just his backup band. However, Genesis themselves knew different, and they set out to prove it in spectacular fashion. After Peter, the remaining members conducted a long, exhaustive, but ultimately fruitless search to find a lead vocalist before Phil Collins reluctantly stepped out from behind his drumset to assume singing duties. Ironically, he had provided "secondary" vocals for the band for quite a while, most notably on "Colony of Slippermen" on the Lamb album, as well as lead vocals on a couple of tracks from "Foxtrot" and "Selling England By The Pound". However, it was not until this album that Genesis and the world would realize that Phil Collins was a first-class singer, in addition to being a drumming powerhouse. The album starts off very strongly with "Dance on a Volcano", which is still one of my all-time favorite Genesis tracks, largely on the strength of Steve Hackett's excellent guitar. Next up is the haunting "Entangled", a otherworldly, yet hilarious piece concerning the medical profession and the high cost thereof. "Squonk" follows, a poppy song about a mythological woodland creature that, to me, foreshadows the Genesis of the 80's. In fact, I feel that this track, as well as the fast-paced and funny "Robbery, Assault and Battery", would fit right in on the "Genesis" and "Invisible Touch" albums of the mid-80s. "Mad Man Moon" - Tony Banks' compositional skills at his finest! "Ripples" - A bittersweet saga about aging and the loss of youth. "Trick of the Tail" - Another Genesis classic about culture shock and alienation, as well as the longing everyone feels sometime to return home, where everyone understands you and no one sees you as different or inferior. No one makes music like this anymore, folks. The album wraps up with the instumental "Los Endos", a fine instrumental that includes parts of the melodies from some of the other tracks on the album. When this album was released, it sold more copies than all other Genesis releases combined to that point. Legend even has it that this album was the favorite of Princess Diana. As some other reviewers have said, this may be the one Genesis album that everyone likes, both the Peter Gabriel fans and the Phil Collins fans. As for me, I think it's among Genesis' best efforts overall, although I am one of those rare people who actually like and can appreciate both "Supper's Ready" and "Invisible Touch".

An interesting note here - this album and "Wind and Wuthering" are, I believe, the only Genesis albums where individual songwriting credit is given. It's interesting to see who wrote which songs and compare their musical styles. On this album, the lion's share of the compositional duties were shared by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford. Phil Collins had not yet really come into his own as a writer, and Steve Hackett, by this point, was getting shoved more and more to the side. This had a big influence on his decision to leave Genesis in 1977, and it's too bad. His talents are showcased very well on this album. It makes one wonder what the Genesis hit machine would have produced in the 80's if he had stayed around.

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