Ben Greenstein
Not their best, but I really like a lot of the tunes. Especially "Can-Utility and the Coastliners," which you obviously don't care for. And I agree about "Supper's Ready" being too long - I'm working on making an edited version as we speak (er, type), and, coincidentally, I would omit all of the parts that you don't care for. And, one last note - "Watcher of the Skies" is a TERRIBLE song.
The worst they've ever done, and that's including the last couple of Phil Collins-era albums. Am I the only one who realizes how ugly the chorus is? Awful, awful, awful. One of those songs which I just don't understand. I'm not familiar with your rating scale, but on my own reveiws of it, I gave it an 8/10.
Mike DeFabio
You people will think I'm really dumb but this is my favorite album ever. Better songs have been written, sure, but on this album everything comes together and clicks and makes something absolutely wonderful. Run down to the record store and get it now! And if you can't afford it, steal somebody's wallet!
John McFerrin
A really, really good album. Now, at first, it was the side-A tracks that sucked me in, just like with you (although, like you, 'Can-Utility' doesn't do jack for me). But at the time I would've only given it an 8, mainly because I just couldn't 'get' 'Supper's Ready'.
After five or six listens, however, that changed drastically. There are certainly chunks where it meanders a bit too much (ie 'How Dare I be so Beautiful'), but on the other hand, I can somewhat forgive that. See, the supper referred to is the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb," which is discussed a bit in Revelations.
Now, since the track is ultimately about the apocalypse and events before and after, it almost seems to work better that the song is somewhat unconnected before Apocalypse in 9/8 (which I just LOVE, btw), since it is stated that no man knows when the Apocalypse is going to happen, so life would be relatively normal right up to the time when it happens (ie it would be more or less haphazard). And in that way, the track works perfectly. A solid, solid 9, and the band's second best effort after England.
Bob Josef
Big disagreement here! Genesis comes up with its best epic piece with "Supper's Ready" -- the lyrics are bizarre but still intriguing and the music is captivating. "Watcher" perfectly catches a sci-fi/outer space mood with its use of the mellotron.
The other tunes suffer from Pete getting a bit too eccentric in an old British man sort of way, which is weird for someone who was only 21 at the time.
By the way, you complain a lot about Tony's "synths", but at this point he was still sticking to organ and mellotron.
Rich Bunnell
I have to agree with Mike's perfect score, even though it isn't my favorite album ever. This is the kind of stuff I -like- in my Genesis-- it's not too bombastic, it's prog without the big, ominous overbearing dynamics which mar some other great Genesis material. "Supper's Ready" is a masterpiece, one better viewed as a lot of different songs mashed into one rather than one big, long 23-minute song. If the CD divided the sections of it into separate tracks, no one would complain. I'll stop here. I love this album. It's the perfect Genesis experience for me.
Also, the thing that's confused me the most throughout my review-page-browsing is Ben's utter contempt for "Watcher Of The Skies." I just can't help wondering what's in the song that makes it horrible at all...it's amazing!
