Do you like progressive rock? Have you ever been interested in early Peter Gabriel, Genesis? Do you like rock operas? If you said yes to all three then this is the album for you. For me prog rock is a real hit and miss kind of thing and I've never been that into early Genesis or rock operas. So for me this is a stretch at number 78 on the Best of the 1970's list. At 23 tracks you have to be ready to make a real commitment to listen to this one. All that aside it's an interesting album and you can definitely see a glimpse of solo Peter Gabriel to come, as well as the post Peter Gabriel, Genesis at work here.
Probably a good album to take a nap to.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.
These reviews of older albums are really interesting to me, because I get the references into the future that you make. This song does sound like the combination of a Peter Gabriel solo effort and Phil Collins-percussion-driven thing from the early 1980s. Intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI don't like this music at all, but I really loved Peter Gabriel's big hits in the 1980s and I see that those would never have happened if he hadn't done this first.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, this is how you should develop as an artist. It makes sense that when you are young, you would try all sorts of weird and experimental stuff to develop your craft and hone your knowledge of the art. Then, as you mature, you can draw on the lessons you have learned from your experimentation to make art that is more palatable to the masses. This is not "selling out"; art that reaches almost no one is of almost no value -- popular art is usually better than unpopular art.
Unfortunately, too many artists either (1) disdain popularity and never grow to the point where they can make art that reaches everyone or (2) focus only on popularity and therefore never really develop their talents. I am not surprised that the Genesis folk -- who were very successful for a very long time -- avoided those mistakes.