Well, this looks like the familiar 'Genesis' wagon already. Even though only a year had passed since FGTR, Peter Gabriel already sounds like he's undergone a fifty-years spiritual training course in Tibet or, at the least, in Oxford's Department of Philosophy. What's the news, you say? Well, it's like those charming, blue-eyed kids that stared at you from the last album's cover with white innocence never existed. They are not represented on the Trespass cover at all, by the way. (For that matter, no Genesis album pictured the band members until 1978, and even then it was rather an exception - in the finest traditions of prog).
The lyrics have gotten 'off the deep end', one would say. This time, they're either paranoid ('Looking For Someone'), or schizofrenic ('Stagnation'), or visionary ('Visions Of Angels'). At times Peter Gabriel seems to have been reading too much Machiavelli ('The Knife'), and at times - too much Jack London ('White Mountain'; or was it Rudyard Kipling that inspired him for this story of two wolves battling for a mystical crown?). It's obvious that he is in a transitional state: his poetry isn't as childishly naive as on FGTR, but it hasn't yet become acquainted with the curious and fascinating Brit-tingled imagery he'd start to develop soon afterwards. It's just... on the brink. Note, however, that Peter wasn't the only lyricist around - some of the lyrics should be credited to Tony and some to Anthony Philips, so I'm not responsible. In general, one must say that the lyrics are still way too pretentious and snubby, with 'White Mountain' crowning it all in puffed-up stupidity. But not always.

The songs are getting longer, too. Much longer. And this is really what makes this record a relative downer. As long as Gabriel sings, everything seems to be OK: the melodies are existent, the song structures are terrifyingly complex (another Genesis trademark) but discernible, and standouts such as 'The Knife' even get your blood flowing. However, there are too many instrumental breaks, and, like I already mentioned in the intro, soloing is just not a Genesis forte. So most of these breaks are boring to the extreme - in fact, it wouldn't be until Selling England By The Pound that the band would have finally learned how to fill in the breaks with creative ideas, and even then only for a short time. For the most part, they serve to demonstrate us the ample talents of Mr Banks (there are almost no guitar solos), and, like I said, Mr Banks is not a very talented keyboard player. At least, there's little or nothing in his backpack to make me interested. And this results in my usual longing to fast forward the instrumental parts. BUT - if you exclude the instrumental parts, you'll be left with only half the running time (if not less), so the main flaw of the album is obvious.

Considering the band's relatively low instrumental skills, this isn't too surprising. This is actually what happens when you set out to become a prog band without having spent enough time at your instrument. To compensate for the lack of flashiness, the band goes for atmosphere: solemn Mellotron noodling, one-note bass passages, simplistic, repetitive acoustic passages, and lots of insipid musical phrases played so quietly you don't even notice. Even when Peter picks up the flute on occasion you can't help but laugh: he plays it so carefully and tenderly, but it's just because he can't play any complex passages, so he has to breathe everything he can into one single note. About the only fascinating musical passage I can remember is the eyebrow-raising Mellotron solo in the first part of 'Stagnation' (if that's a Mellotron, of course). It sounds so friggin' weird and otherworldly, especially with these 'bends' at the beginning of the third minute. Just sooo spaced out and trippy that it really makes you wonder.

Apart from that problem, fine melodies. 'The Knife' is the best on here - the first timeless Genesis classic concerning Peter's reflexations on revolution and violence in general; it was also the only number from the album to make it onto the regular stage set. It's also the most (and the only) hard-rockin' piece on here, actually, it might be the heaviest song ever recorded by Genesis if I'm not mistaken, and for those who have been previously lulled to sleep, it's a natural way to get thrown out of the comatose state into a world of chaos, distortion, stormy organ solos and poisonous, sneering vocals. Not coincidentally, for many people this is the only song on the entire album worth mentioning, just because it's so seriously different from every other song on here - a great dynamic, psychotic ending for an otherwise calm, solemn, slow-paced, wintery kind of record.

But then again, the solitary, secluded-atmosphere-style 'Looking For Someone' is kinda awesome too, with Peter at his most desperate; and 'Visions Of Angels' is quite in the FGTR style, if you get my drift. It's got a catchy pop chorus, after all. And I actually came around to liking the sung parts in 'Stagnation' - that section where Peter goes 'ah-ah-ah- AH - ah-ah- AH - ah- said - I wanna sit down!' moves me to tears, and I'm almost ready to rush out and offer Gabriel the drink he's longing for so much, 'to take all the dust and the dirt from my throat'. In all, the vocal melodies and Gabriel's talent are so much evident here that it makes me forgive all the lengthy, pointless instrumental noodlings; if not for the utterly moronic 'White Mountain', perhaps the biggest artistic misstep of the entire Gabriel period, I'd have given it an even bigger rating.

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