as dull as its cover art

With the exception of "Invisible Touch", I wouldn't recommend ANY Genesis albums after 1978's "And Then There Were Three." The band's self-titled 1983 album continues the decline.



There are three songs of moderate interest, with the best being the mystical-sounding "It's Going To Get Better." The atmospheric "Mama" and the upbeat "Just a Job To Do" are also worth a listen.



But the rest of this album is just listless, uninspired junk from a band that once made great music. People who think that the "Home By The Sea" tracks are profound or something need only go back further into Genesis' catalogue to find long tracks that are really passionate and great.



Certainly the low point is "Illegal Alien" - why this racist, unwitty ditty didn't end the band's career once and for all is unclear.



If you really want to discover the wonders of Genesis, go back to 70s masterpieces like "Foxtrot" or "Selling England By the Pound" or "Seconds Out". It's interesting to note that - according to Amazon sales ranks - 70s Genesis albums sell much better than their 80s albums.

Faceless

It's amazing how quickly a band can change. In the year since Abacab was released, Genesis lost its purpose. Never before had Genesis released a song as stupid as Illegal Alien ("eets no fun being an illegal aileeon") or as boring as Mama. The nondescript symbols on the cover say it all. 'Genesis' contain faceless music sung by the popular singer Phil Collins.

Avoid.



[DW]

Love it!

This album proves that Prog is not all about uncommercial rock music. NO! This album shows that prog is about new ideas. Here, Genesis take 80's pop and inject new ideas into it. Home by the sea has a long instrumental section, my favourite track Silver Rainbow has style changes and a unique melody, Illegal Alien has heaps of great prog instrumentation, as does the story-tellign Just a job to do. Even a Phil Collins ballad, taking it all too hard, features some great progressive movements. So, I'm not as fond of the other songs. I think that there is a couple of songs about depression (mama, that's all) and they are not interesting to me, but most people will like their dark atmosphere.

In all, a great album