11 August 2012

Sez you

Here was a Respectfully Opposed response to a virtual neighbor who “remembered Foxtrot being one of the best Genesis albums” :

Well, some bits (at the least) of the lyrics to “Supper’s Ready” are near flat-out goofy, and not only the “Willow Farm” interlude. Now, in a sense, I think you’re perfectly right: “Supper’s Ready” is long, but it’s not one long compositional whole the way that the first movement of a Mozart piano concerto (which probably runs about as long) is . . . “Supper’s Ready” is basically on the Abbey Road side 2 model, of a bunch of bits strung together, musically, with some incidental back-references tucked in later on in the piece for good measure. So I think Foxtrot “significant” for [Genesis] (a) because Hackett is now well integrated into the ensemble, and (b) for the nerve of trying something as large-scale as “Supper’s Ready.” And there is a lot of “stuff” in “Supper’s Ready” which is mighty impressive. On the whole, though, [Foxtrot] strikes me as rather a rough-cut album (though “Watcher of the Skies” is a strong opener IMO) . . . and there followed a process of musical digestion, I think, from which Selling England by the Pound benefits in an impressive degree of assurance.

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