A fair bit of discussion has started about this album in another thread, but rather than hijack that thread I thought I would start a dedicated one.
What do people think of this one? My take on it is that it's the album that had to happen before we could have Nursery Cryme or its successors. FGTR was successful enough for what it was - an album of fairly light poppish songs with some interesting arrangements. I think Trespass shows them struggling to grow into a symphonic progressive band. There is a lot of experimentation with song structure here, and it works better on some songs than others. One hears the same kind of motifs throughout that you hear on Nursery Cryme, especially the guitar parts. Later songs like Fountain of Salmacis use some of the same ideas found on Trespass, except by that time they had worked out how to put together a really long song without it sounding like a forced amalgam of shorter songs.
I consider Trespass to be an album that's excellent in parts, bookended by two somewhat dodgy tracks.
My song ratings at this moment in time:
Looking For Someone 6/10
The weakest song after The Knife. There are some gorgeous parts in this song, but structurally it's a bit of a mess. It's as though Gabriel thought "I haven't shouted yet in this song, I better do some shouting here."
White Mountain 9/10
The most successful song. Holds up well by comparison with later "epics" like Hogweed and Can-Utility.
Visions of Angels 7/10
"Pretty" is how I describe this song. Lyrics are a bit lame.
Stagnation 8/10
Another standout, slightly spoiled by some of the vocals.
Dusk 9/10
'Nuff said.
The Knife 4/10
It rocks - but that's about all I can say in its favour. Not enough of a Choon.
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