It shows no or at best only the most minuscule traces of the style that would make them well-known later, and therefore frequently meets with a refusal and lack of affection. Justly so?
Time Tables next, with its cute, modest start on acoustic piano. A sweet tune, more like a ballad, reminiscing about Medieval values. The bass is cool on this one too, something that only is apparent on subsequent listens. The piano solo is simple, and the bass is great here too, offering accompaniment. Good tune, but probably my least favorite on the album.
Get 'em Out By Friday is great. Epic intro with the guitars and organ. Those two instruments really drive the tune (especially organ). Peter offers many characters in this song. It's one of those dystopian concepts where spaces are bought by this
company and they force out the tenants. As time goes by, the company people buy more places and sell them for higher prices, put a restriction on height to fit more moved people into smaller spaces, and just generally act like all-powerful corporate dicks. The guitar break on the first bridge is sweet, and the bass on the "oh no, this I can't believe..." parts is cool. Great concept, if knowingly whimsical, nice flutes, organ, and everything else. The guitar at the end is sublime on that last chord.
Can-Utility and the Coastliners is about King Canute or whatever, and it is my favorite song on the album. Humble beginnings, with nice guitar picking and organ backing. Little finger cymbals! Then it kicks in with those bass pedals, but a treble-y organ. Then the drum and pedal hits with organ swelling, great on the chorus. Jam break next! Hackett and Banks are wizards as usual. Bass pedals help. Then epicness with that organ! I'm basically just describing the parts of the song, just listen. Oh my favorite, with the organ arpeggios and the fat bass, classical lines, then Hackett solo! Organ part returns under Peter, then bass and drum hold, and the organ part sounds great over that. Ends with Peter's emotion and classical ending. You can tell I'm just listening to this album as I write this.
Horizons is just based off Bach's famous cello piece, you can tell from the first phrase. It's a nice guitar solo acoustic guitar piece, beautiful. What you would expect from Hackett, harmonics and all.
I'm not even going to get into Supper's Ready. You know about it, I know about it. This review is already a scaled-down version of everyone else's so I'll just say what I like about it. Interesting concept. The beginning and it's abruptness always jarred me, but I'm down with it. All parts of this song are great, but it also contains some of my favorite Genesis musical figures. The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man theme in the second part and at the end is great, just epic. Especially at the end, with the guitar part on the fade out. Amazing. But I'm ahead of myself. The Ikhnaton and Itsacon part is probably my favorite part. So epic. Build-up to the guitar solo is so great, which itself is just a build-up to 8 measures of euphoria that is the guitar-organ arpeggios. The best ever. Just ever. What's awesome is that it's so simple, the chord progression is just like a cliché classical type thing, but it's presented so well. That goes into this great euphoric part with strummed acoustic guitar, and the organ doing the arpeggios in the background. I never want that part to end. My other favorite is Apocalypse in 9/8. The vocals are so angsty and intense, and I love the melody. The meter is so awesome, and the atmosphere is... well, apocalyptic. But the centerpiece of it all is that Banks solo. Amazing. Second only to his written solo on Firth of Fifth and the Cinema Show solo. It's so awesome how he doesn't even follow the time signature, he was just able play something like that without breaking a sweat. After that, Peter and the band offer us the Apocalypse, just right there. I can't even describe the blissful pain there.
I do think Supper's Ready tends to get the most love here, and for good reason. It's awesome. But I don't think it's perfect, and it isn't my favorite tune here (that's Can-Utility). But really, everything on here is great. This, Selling England, and the Lamb are the creative peak (or plateau I guess) of Genesis. Well, I'd honestly put Nursery Cryme and Trick of the Tail on that level too, or at least close. Just listen. Don't even keep reading. What are you doing? Stop reading. Listen!
