- The Musical Box
- For Absent Friends>
- The Return of Giant Hogweed
- Seven Stones
- Harold the Barrel
- Harlequin
- The Fountain of Salmacis
The Musical Box
In a master stroke Gabriel enters this song as if it has already started, and we the listeners are arriving late during his performance. The whole piece is full of repressed sexuality and violence and Gabriel toys with the lyrics with fastidious fascination. The most simple lines about 'Old King Cole', are rendered chilling, and phrases like "and the nurse will tell you lies", leap out from a numery room drama that builds up in tidal waves of manic energy. Although Tony Banks would later state that this album was similar to 'Trespass', the presence of the two newcomers is immediately obvious. Phil Collins brings a whole new dimension with his dynamic percussive playing, pushing the band with relentless drive and rock solid sense of time. Even during the quiet passages, you can hear his sticks rattling off closed hi-hat patterns that are far slicker than anything his predecessors could manage. Peter brings astonishing sensuality to his pronouncement of the keyword "flesh" before embarking on an orgy of shouting from the rooftops, "Why don't you touch me, now, now, NOW!" The band returns, with Steve Hackett's guitar well to the foreground, providing the first real competition for the keyboards. Together they create a power in the ranks unimaginable only a few months before. The guitar whips up manic sounds and Phil flies as they reach a crescendo and staccato coda that must have left them all amazed and breathless. It might still make you want to stand up and cheer this track, 25 years after its creation.
Back to Top
For the Absent Friends
>In the midst of some pretty strong and violent musical overtures, this is a pleasing interlude in which Phil Collins makes a distinguished vocal debut. The rest of the band drop out, leaving the 12-string guitarists of the band (which included Banks, Rutherford and Hackett), to strum and pick behind Phil's touching vocals. The song is a brief, unfussy observation about a pair of widows attending church and thinking melancholy thoughts of loved ones lost. A nice touch that allows a reflective moment before the onslaught to come.
