A Trick of the Tail (1976)

Artist: Genesis
Release Year: 1976

Rating: 8/10

Track Listing: 1) Dance on a Volcano; 2) Entangled; 3) Squonk; 4) Mad Man Moon; 5) Robbery, Assault and Battery; 6) Ripples; 7) A Trick of the Tail; 8) Los Endos.

The biggest question on everyone's mind in 1976, of course, was whether Phil Collins could pick up the torch after Peter Gabriel's departure, and I'd say this album provides a resounding "yes".  This album may not be the most coherent, but these songs all have an individual personality that demands my attention to each.

Right off the bat with "Dance on a Volcano", we're thrown into a rocking groove with an infectious hook of "better start doing it rii-ii-iight", and everyone's really tight throughout this complex song.  Next, I have to admit I'm a sucker for the intermittent bars of 7/8 throughout "Entangled", a story of psychotherapy through medically-induced hallucinations-- not just because I'm a nerd, but because it really aids the feeling of unease throughout this eerie trip through interlocking guitar passages and creepy choral voices.

Hackett's best moment on here is easily on "Ripples", a song that's beautiful already if you're not paying attention to the lyrics, which is for the best if you want to avoid the awful existential crisis within.  But the emotional vocals from Phil and the soaring, ethereal solo from Hackett are enough to make me endure the reminders about getting older and uglier.  I wish there was more for Steve Hackett to do on this album, but at least there's enough of Phil's unpredictable, jazzy drum style to spice things up.  He's an absolute superhero throughout all of the arena epic "Squonk", both in terms of vocals and on the drums.

Sadly, this album slumps in the middle.  "Mad Man Moon" is pretty in places, but a slow and plodding thing like this would have been better at four minutes instead of nearly eight.  "Robbery, Assault and Battery" annoys me too, and not just because the title doesn't use an Oxford comma.  On an album of mythical beasts and existential crises, a comedy about criminals just seems out of place, and I find it mostly an inferior copy of "The Battle of Epping Forest", at least until Mike Rutherford's and Collins' rhythm freakouts.

The title track is a ridiculously fun and bouncy story of a earnest little creature who wanders into the human world, and it's easily the best singalong moment of mid-period Genesis.  Then there's a reprise of all these tracks on "Los Endos", which I could do without, but it's not offensive-- just forgettable.

Their most underrated album to my ears, this one is usually cited as a refutation of the "pop sellout" allegations that people throw at the post-Gabriel years.  Maybe that's fair at face value (no pun intended); but having heard the next few albums, I can't help thinking a lot of these songs were still carried by their earlier, prog-stage inertia.