Note: I'm only doing these albums as I know them, and that's mostly on vinyl so don't expect any bonus tracks. Any special editions or whatever released afterwards can **** right off. Also, all ratings of tracks here are relevant only to that album, so a 10 on one album doesn't mean it's as good as a 10 on another, and so on.
From Genesis to Revelation (1969)
First off, as everyone knows (probably) I do not like this album much at all. It's much more a folk album than a prog one and though it does point the way - very vaguely - towards what Genesis would become, it's much more the next album that really shows what superstars these guys would become. More or less driven by Jonathan King to make this album, supposedly based on the Bible, though I've never seen it, the guys sound uncomfortable and stilted here, kind of caught between two worlds, and indeed, on the very cusp of a new decade. It speaks volumes that this is the only Genesis album I have to replay in order to write about it. I just don’t listen to it. Ever. With good reason.
Where the Sour Turns to Sweet
Very folk, very hippy, very Haight-Ashbury, the stupid finger clicking annoys me, the vocal is probably too soft and "peace man", but it's not the worst track on the album. Not by a long chalk. Still, it's an inauspicious beginning I feel.
5/10
In the Beginning
Opens like some sort of feedback experimental track or something but quickly turns into another hippy song with some really terrible production - sounds very hollow and echoey. Gabriel's voice is at least more forceful here and Rutherford's guitar gets a chance to do more than just play along and keep the beat. It's again not the worst song but it's far from the best on the album. At least (as I said in my main review) it has more teeth than the opener.
6/10
Fireside Song
My favourite track on the album. The gentle, strummed guitar, the strings backing (I know most people decry the use of the strings on the album as just another effort by King to mould it into what he wanted it to be, but here I think they work very well), the soft vocal totally suits this song. Extra points for the Tony Banks piano intro, presaging something we would all get used to and love on Genesis albums.
10/10
The Serpent
This is one of the songs I don’t like at all. It sounds to me like it doesn’t know what it wants to be, starting with a kind of rocky guitar and then becoming a sort of psych/blues thing, with galloping drums that suddenly and for no reason cut out completely. The choral vocals are very annoying too. I find Gabriel’s vocal fading in and out of the mix - not sure whether that’s his immaturity and inexperience at the time, or just bad production, but it’s very irritating. Get a kind of Moody Blues vibe from this. Really doesn’t work for me.
3/10
Am I Very Wrong
There are a few low-key ballads on the album, and in general, for me, they tend to work better than the more raucous rocky ones. In other words, at this time, Genesis come across better when they try to be hippies than when they attempt to be rockers. They’d come to understand this later, and with a very few exceptions you won’t find any wild guitar solos in Genesis songs. Another nice Banks intro, with some really nice acoustic guitar too, though the vocal harmonies are a little cringey. Gabriel is in his element here, and beginning to show what a vocal talent he would turn out to be.
7/10
In the Wilderness
Another favourite, this one opens with a Banks solo but soon kicks up, and Gabriel shows his range here. Again the strings do actually help here I find. There’s a great hook in the chorus, and you can hear the future echoes of “Visions of Angels” from the next album in certain passages. Even here, as far back as 1969, Genesis are already complaining about wallpaper music radio, in a way Queen would take up two decades later. Lovely piano outro completes the song.
9/10
The Conqueror
I think if I have to choose a least favourite song on the album it’s this one. I feel it’s way too harsh for the generally hippy/peace image they’re trying to present here, even though it borrows from the outro, which is quickly replaced by dark bass piano notes and becomes an uptempo pop song. It’s catchy, there’s no doubting that, but I just don’t like it. It could be any sixties band really. Again the vocal gets swamped by the music, again I don’t know if this is a production issue or not, but I would think it probably is. That guitar solo at the end is just so out of place!
4/10
In Hiding
Like something the Beach Boys or the Hollies might have recorded when it begins, but it slides into a decent ballad, again driven by Gabriel’s vocal prowess, and once again the strings really complement this song for me. It’s gentle, it’s pastoral, but it’s a little weak to say the least.
5/10
One Day
Another favourite, even if the lyric about a guy living in the wilderness with his lady love is barf-inducing, Gabriel makes it actually charming. A really good musical backdrop to the story, excellent work from Banks on the piano (either the budget only stretched to organ and piano for him, or he had only learned to play those two, and not the array of synths and other instruments he would later employ to create his sound: well, he was only seventeen at the time, remember!) and decent horns, which surprisingly really work well.
9/10
Window
Nice jangly guitar opening this, Anthony Phillips making his mark, and then it’s another soft ballad with Gabriel dialling down his voice to the barest murmur and still keeping, even commanding your attention. A simple song, but a really nice one. Horns and strings complete the musical landscape here.
8/10
In Limbo
One track where I feel the horns don’t work, and it’s too straight forward a pop song with nothing of the identity of even this Genesis in it. I feel Gabriel’s vocal is quite restrained and almost lost for much of this track. Too driven by the horns, not enough Banks piano and even the guitar is kind of just there.
4/10
The Silent Sun
I always find it odd that this was the track chosen as a single from this album. Not that it matters - it bombed of course. But if there’s a song that’s completely out of place here then for me this is it. The rhythm is weird - I almost expect to hear backing singers goin “bub-bub-bub-bub!” And from what I can remember (and have heard here) it’s the only song on which Genesis use that overused address, “baby”. Even the strings and the recalling of the main melody of “Fireside Song” can’t save this. Just a stupid and utterly pointless love song, an obvious attempt to write a hit single, which failed miserably. Terrible.
2/10
A Place To Call My Own
A nice coda to the album, bringing everything together under a soft, understated Banks piano line, a gentle vocal for Gabriel, and some last but relatively minimal strings. He instrumental, orchestral ending makes it, and actually does help point the way towards the direction on future albums, particularly
Trespass.
7/10
Album rating: 3/10