Album title: Seconds out
Artiste: Genesis
Nationality: British
Year: 1977
Subgenre: None; pure Progressive Rock
Player(s): Phil Collins (Lead vocals, Drums), Mike Rutherford (Guitars, Bass), Steve hackett (Guitars), Tony Banks (Keyboards), Chester Thompson/Bill Bruford (Drums) (Bruford only drums on “Cinema show”) Note: Although I'm not going to root it out of my record shelf, I'm fairly sure the album inlay mentioned and showed Daryl Steurmer on guitars too, but the Wiki entry doesn't have him listed...?
Familiarity: Like total man! Genesis are my favourite band of all time!
Favourite track(s): Supper's ready, Cinema show, Firth of Fifth, Afterglow
Why? This was the first time I ever heard “Supper's ready” and it blew my mind/ditto for the other three. This album started off my love affair with Genesis.
Least favourite track(s): “Robbery, assault and battery”
Why? I ended up identifying Genesis with mythological, classical and fantasy lyrics (wasn't far wrong!) and this song was too “ordinary” to me, too rooted in the real world. I also never liked Collins' East End accent on the coppers when he sang. I've grown to tolerate the track now but it's never been a favourite of mine.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? n/a
Artwork: Not bad if a little minimalist. Certainly gives you the idea of a big stage with a serious band on it, and the lights dwarfing them always spoke to me too, the way they're almost pouring the light down on the band like rain.
Factoids you'd like to share? As I say, this was the first Genesis album I ever heard (other than a crappy cassette copy of “Foxtrot”) and so weirdly Collins was the voice I originally linked Genesis with. It is also the very first album ever to be reviewed in my journal!
Initial impression: When “Squonk” opens proceedings you know something dramatic is happening
End impression: Hard to beat the full version of “Supper's ready”, and after “Los endos” they go back into an instrumental of “Squonk” which fades out, sort of bringing the album full circle and giving you the impression that the gig never really ends.
Comments: I've written a full review of this on page one of my journal, back in 2011, but suffice to say it was the very first Genesis album, the first live album and the first progressive rock album I ever had. I think I got it in some sort of swap with a guy at work, having heard “Foxtrot” as above. Pretty sure I didn't buy it. My copy was and is on vinyl, which somehow lends more majesty I feel to the recording, though I did later get a CD copy. The versions of “Firth of Fifth”, “Cinema show, “Afterglow” and “the Lamb” are worth the price of the album alone, and then you have the massive epic “Supper's ready”, clocking it at a tremendous 24:33, and I must admit I've always preferred this version to the original with Gabriel. Who said heresy? It's also interesting to see snippets of other tracks like “The musical box” but then an extended version of “I know what I like” on the album, but I could have done without “Robbery, assault and battery”. Any other track off “Trick of the tail” would have been preferable.
This is an album I'll always love, for getting me into Genesis and via them into prog rock, and also giving me an idea what it must have been like to have been at a gig, long before I could ever afford to go to one. Some idiot who works for “Rolling Stone” apparently once said that the album was “nothing more than a recreation of their studio recordings.” I guess that lack of insight and total outright wrongness proves why he worked for that less than esteemed rag! I have yet to come across a live album on which the versions are so different from the studio ones. This showed them all how to do it!
Rating: 5.0 (Was there ever any doubt?)
