Rate the Genesis catalogue from A to D

[bob_32_116]

It just occurred to me that Genesis are one of those bands for whom how much I like each album is highly correlated with how much I like the album cover/artwork. In the case of the self-titled album, that's not quite true; I think it's easily their worst cover, but it has some decent music.

[cavgator]

I, too, like FGTR (although I just can't get into the "classic" Genesis catalog much at all in recent years). Don't think VdGG was a big influence on Trepass. In The Court certainly was, though. VdGG's influence on Genesis would have come slightly later when they toured a lot together. Both Armando Gallo and Paul Whitehead have told me that Gabriel got a lot out of watching Hammill, who was a very charismatic frontman and inspired PG to come out of his shell a bit on stage. Those two became great friends. And Armando told me that Banks would watch Hugh Banton like a hawk from the side of the stage and soak up some of the stuff he was doing with the Hammond (don't know if TB would ever cop to that). I know Mike Rutherford has said that VdGG was inconsistent. Some nights they'd be completely erratic and un together (which is true); other nights they were fantastic (also true). MR also says in his autobiog that he didn't like the way VdGG structured their sets and, with all the dark gloom, he'd be depressed by the end of some VdGG sets. One man's meat is another's poison I suppose. Given the music they made individually years later, it makes sense to me that MR wouldn't dig VdGG while Gabriel was a big fan. (Compare Intruder or On The Air to stuff by Mike & The Mechanics)

Posts like this is why I enjoy this board. Thanks!

[ThomasKDye]

From Genesis to Revelation C
Trespass B+
Nursery Cryme B (Never been a fan of "Hogweed," honestly)
Foxtrot A
Selling England By The Pound A+
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway B (despite my icon, I consider it the proverbial girl with the curl in the lot)
A Trick of the Tail A
Wind and Wuthering A+
And Then There Were Three B+
Duke B
Abacab B (first side is A+, second side is C-, so it balances out)
Genesis B-
Invisible Touch B-
We Can't Dance C-
Calling All Stations B-

EPs:
Spot the Pigeon B+ ("Match of the Day," "Pigeons," "Inside and Out")
3x3 B+ ("Paperlate," "You Might Recall," "Me and Virgil")

[ThomasKDye]

I remain fond of 'In The Beginning', 'The Conqueror', 'The Serpent' and 'In The Wilderness'.

I'm with you on that. I dig the snarky vibe of "Beginning" and "The Serpent," and "The Conqueror" is, to me, sort of a fun early-Who-style song centered on the piano. But so much of it just fades in my mind… I can sort of recall the triumphant "ONE DAY I'LL CAPTURE YOU" stuff, and I do like the proto-goth of "Am I Very Wrong?" But it particularly pales when you know what these guys were eventually capable of. They sound so nondescript here it's ridiculous.

[ThomasKDye]

W&W: B-

W & W C

While I wipe the Diet Coke off my monitor, I'm going to take some time to remind myself repeatedly how the world is an incredibly variegated place.

[KGHofSF]

The As

Foxtrot
Wind & Wuthering
Trick of the Tail
Seconds Out

A- / B+
The Lamb


The Bs

Three Sides Live version without the studio stuff
Nursery Crime
Genesis Live
Selling England

The Cs
And Then
Duke

The C-
From Genesis to Revelation

The D
Abacab (the title song was Ok, but the rot was setting in. . .)

Once you get past Abacab I gave up, though I'm led to understand that one could almost get 40 minutes of OK stuff by picking and choosing individual songs . . .

regards
KGH

[KGHofSF]

Oops forgot Trespass which was a solid B-

regards
KGH

[bob_32_116]

I concur with what seems to be a generally held opinion that Abacab was a fail.

It has two songs I like: the title song, and Keep it Dark. If they had put those two songs on Shapes, perhaps displacing Just a Job to Do and Taking It All Too Hard, that would have made a damn good album.

[Facelift]

We're doing post-W&W now?

ATTWT: B-
Duke: B+
Abacab: A-
Genesis: B
Invisible Touch: C+
We Can't Dance: B+
Calling All Stations: D

[Rufus]

We're doing post-W&W now?

ATTWT: B-
Duke: B+
Abacab: A-
Genesis: B
Invisible Touch: C+
We Can't Dance: B+
Calling All Stations: D

Duke-A-
ATTWT B
Abacap C+
Genesis C+
Invisible Touch-C+
We Can't Dance D
Calling all Stations D

[Progatron]

Is there a more commonly misspelled album in prog history than Nursery Cryme? I've seen it spelled wrong for decades. Nursery Crime, Nursery Crimes, Nursery Chryme, Nursery Chrymes....

[everyday]

From Genesis to Revelation D
Trespass C+
Nursery Cryme A
Foxtrot A
Selling England By The Pound A- (not a fan of Epping Forest)
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway B+
Trick of the Tail A
Wind and Wuthering A-
And Then There Were Three A-
Duke B
Abacab C+
Genesis B
Invisible Touch B-
We Can't Dance C-
Calling All Stations B

EPs:
Spot the Pigeon A- ("Match of the Day," "Pigeons," "Inside and Out")
3x3 B+ ("Paperlate," "You Might Recall," "Me and Virgil")

[the winter tree]

ATTW3: B


DUKE: B

ABacab: B-

GENESIS: B-

IT: C

WCD: D-

CAS: B-

[Tangram]

From Genesis to Revelation C-
Trespass A-
Nursery Cryme B
Foxtrot A-
Selling England By The Pound A
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway B+
A Trick of the Tail A (favorite from Genesis)
Wind and Wuthering A-
And Then There Were Three B+
Duke B+
Abacab B
Genesis B-
Invisible Touch B
We Can't Dance C+
Calling All Stations C