October 3, 1983 - Genesis and That's All

Over two months since my last release, and a very long six years since the last music I have by them, Genesis is still going strong, releasing their twelfth album "Genesis" on October 3, 1983. Guitarist Steve Hackett has long since departed and the group has played as a 3-piece for the past few albums in a more pop-rock kind of style with bassist Mike Rutherford also taking over the guitar duties. It's not my thing, but they have been commercially successful as this is their third straight number one album in the U.K. It spawned five singles, but I have only one of them, the second song "That's All". Tony Banks leads the way with a catchy piano riff that sounds pretty pop-y and Phil Collins plays a light drumbeat before coming in to sing the first verse. His vocals still sound pretty good and he does a nice lower voice to start and switches to a pop-y higher voice for the "head down to my toes" part that sounds decent. It makes for a decent main riff as Banks continues to play some nice piano and Collins sings nicely along. They play a few of these decent, catchy verses before slowing it down for the bridge where Collins plays a couple nice slow drum fills. This bridges right to a keyboard solo for Banks and what he plays is pretty laid-back and similar to the main beat, but it does fit the mood nicely. It's ultimately pretty disappointing though considering the awesome solos of Genesis past. It leads right back into the main beat and after a brief revisit to the slow bridge, they play a final verse with Collins doing some nice yelling vocals and the final minute or so is left for a Rutherford guitar solo! He also doesn't play anything too flashy, but it's much better than the keyboard solo and is a solid way to finish things off as they begin a slow fadeout midway through that ends about the same time as the solo does. This new pop-y Genesis is certainly not my main cup of tea, but this smooth song was pretty good and one I'm happy to have in my library.

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