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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After everybody in the whole wide world bashed FGTR into the ground, Genesis apparently decided that if they were going to be a successful group at all, they would have to revamp in a big, big way. So they picked up a new, slightly better drummer in John Mayhew, headed into the studio and reinvented themselves as a fledgling prog-rock group. Gone were the short pop songs and youthful faces on the cover, replaced by lengthy, complex compositions with endless instrumental breaks and an icy blue album cover depicting the temptation of Christ by Lucifer.

So what's the problem? Well, the problem is that a huge number of these instrumental breaks are, at least on first few listens, dull to the extreme. A lot of them grew on me eventually, but for the first year or two that I owned this album, I couldn't even vaguely remember a large chunk of them. Put another way - take the following year's The Yes Album, preserve the quality of the songs from a melody perspective, but remove virtually all melodic and 'epic' hooks (not to mention energy) from the instrumental parts, and what you get is Trespass. But then, this was to be expected; Genesis never had the greatest chops in the world even in their hey-day, so what should one expect when they have neither of their major virtuosos, not to mention that it's only been a year since an album that had some very sub-par instrumental performances? The band does a good job of creating a lot of interesting atmosphere, and a lot of the textures during the parts when Gabriel sings are very pretty, but when the vocals disappear for a long stretch, things often get hairy.

In this respect, the first side of the album is a real pain to sit through, even if there are enough strengths to compensate at least partially. The actual songs are very, very good, don't get me wrong - even the somewhat ridiculous White Mountain, with lyrics by Rutherford, has a fabulous melody in the main portions. And the overwhelming vibe of desperation coming from Gabriel's vocals in Looking For Someone (with another fascinating and extremely complex melody) and the pretty melody and chorus in Visions of Angels make both of these tracks extremely enjoyable at times. But ONLY when Gabriel's singing - the rest of the time, my head inevitably starts drooping. I'll admit that the 'jam' at the end of Looking For Someone makes some sense, with a pretty impressive build, but the rest? Bleh.

However, the second half is significantly better. Stagnation seemed a little unmemorable to me at first, but I've come to love it over the years. The first makes for a pretty, memorable and cold ballad, and the main instrumental passage, particularly in the bits with Tony having fun with the tuning properties of the mellotron, is incredibly lovely and atmospheric. And of course, there's the fabulous return of Peter's vocals near the end, as Gabriel pleads for water and a place to rest himself ("ah ah ah AH AH AH AH AH AH AH SAID I WANNA SIT DOOOOWWWWN" is something all Gabriel fans should hear at some point). To me, though, the quiet ballad Dusk is just as good. Have you ever had the chance to sit outside during a cold winter dusk? If not, you might not be able to fully appreciate the cold majestic mood created by this track, but if you have, you'll probably agree with me in my fondness and love for this song. Not to mention that the melody is once again friggin' beautiful, with gorgeous harmonies in the choruses and even more of the shaking tenderness than usual of Peter's emoting (especially when he sings, "And if we draw some water, does the well run dry?"). And best of all, the instrumental jamming in the song is kept to an ABSOLUTE MINIMUM, only involving some pleasant acoustic lines and some flute chiming in once in a while.

So yeah, this is a good album, despite all of the problems with the instrumental passages, and ...

Ha! Did you really think I was going to write a review of Trespass without gushing over The Knife? It's crazy, like nothing I've ever heard before or since. For the first time ever, the Banksynths have found an awesome riff and melody to latch onto, and goodness knows I like it when Tony's playing a pattern that's interesting and makes sense. And the lyrics??!! "I'll give you the names of those you must kill, all must die with their children. Carry their heads to the palace of old, hang them high, let the blood flow"!! "Tell me my life is about to begin, tell me that I am a hero, promise me all of your violent dreams, light up your body with anger."!! And of course, "Some of you are going to die, martyrs of course to the freedom that I will provide." And the most frightening thing is that, listening to Peter scream out these lines in the way only he can, you actually believe him if you're not careful. Not to mention that there are some perfectly interesting guitar solos in the song (pretty much the only ones on the album, actually), interspersed with quiet flute lines, gloomy and majestic organ passages, Peter chanting "we are only wanting freedom" in a war-march style, all culminating in the band playing a menacing chord in a rhythm more frightening than all of the 'evil' passages of every heavy metal band ever (well, maybe except for the end of Metallica's One). It's not the absolute greatest number the band ever did, but it's certainly up there (though I actually like the Live version more, believe it or not), and by itself makes the album worth hearing and owning.

In short, all of the traits that made Genesis such a great band are already in place - it just so happens that all the negatives are splashed over them in a greater amount than usual, and they're just too much to not hurt the rating significantly. But it's still quite a good album.

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