Genesis

Wind and Wuthering

4.5 Stars

Review Score:

(8/10)
I actually rather like Wind and Wuthering. I love all the material. My least favoruite song is Wot Gorilla? but it's still pretty good. The only thing I don't like about the album is the omnipresence of Banks' Synths. Sure, they make great instrumental passages but when the mellotron is blazing from beginning to end of an album and is competing for prominence in the overall sound of the album when the singer is singing and so forth, it does detract from it, in my view. I would also liek to take this opportunity to tell you that I am not a big prog fan. Well, I love prog but I don't only like prog. I actually heard the 'Then there were three' album before I heard this album and that one strikes me as being more infectious than Wind and Wuthering. Well, that's not a good or bad thing. That's really just a fact. Three relies on lots of passages of different musical styles, almost always featuring vocals, while Wind and Wuthering is more reliant on long instrumental passages. My tastes prefer the former, but obviously most people here prefer Wind and Wuthering. Anyway, it's a nice album. It's very mellotron heavy and is full of mystifying lyrics and vocals. The highlight of the album for me? There are a few, Blood on the rooftops, featuring Hacketts brilliant guitar work and some very tasteful keyboard playing, the instrumental passages to One for the vine, especially the bit where Phil absolutely pounds out a disco beat. Something similar happens during the last instrumental where they are playing something like heavy metal. Phil Collins' drumming there could be compared to the sound of a hail storm, it is THAT good. The song about the mouse is lyrically amusing and is rather infectious. Actually, a lot of peole are bashing 'Your own special way'. That is a beautiful song which is also very thoughtful. Checkout the wild time signature change during the chorus. Most of the songs here are winners, but I do feel as though the mellotrons are overdone. But then I am not one of those people who care about how well an album flows. I admit that. I can tell you know this album flows well. Perhaps it's the mellotrons that help to do that? 4.6/5.0

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