Your favorite GENESIS studio albums (pick three)

Quote from Backdrifter

Well... some people have spoken.

I'll bet not as much as it pains me to see The Lamb trailing behind W&W.

Well, if you REALLY want to go there NC got only 1% more than ATTW3 and WCD. Apocalypse now: the Horror....The Horror....I can't think of a more tired, listless, light coke, autopilot mode, contractual obligation smelling, end of the road album than WCD. Three good songs in a sea of mediocrity as far as I'm concerned. Apart from a few exceptions, overall the laziest lyrics ever penned by Genesis and to be clear why not? After an over 20 year career, with some remarkable albums under their belt. It can happen but as I said, people like it and they have spoken.

Quote from Fabrizio

Well, if you REALLY want to go there NC got only 1% more than ATTW3 and WCD. Apocalypse now: the Horror....The Horror....I can't think of a more tired, listless, light coke, autopilot mode, contractual obligation smelling, end of the road album than WCD. Three good songs in a sea of mediocrity as far as I'm concerned. Apart from a few exceptions, overall the laziest lyrics ever penned by Genesis and to be clear why not? After an over 20 year career, with some remarkable albums under their belt. It can happen but as I said, people like it and they have spoken.

Booooooooo! Hissssss!

Quote from thewatcher

Fwiw I liked it more when I heard it first. I still love the strong tracks but have less time for the weaker ones now.

I agree. Initially, I loved all of it bar YOSW, and WG I liked, but not that much. In recent years, however, side one has flagged, though for me, side 2 has stood up well, I'm one of the few who really like AIAMN, so side 2 is all good to me. therefore, I guess, it's half a good album.

And so, apart from swapping 3 and 4 over, I'd agree with the result, esp. as I voted for 1, 2 and 4!

whenever the sun is out..it is always Duke for me. For some reason reminds me of the West coast and i guess a more commercially viable album. Listened to the 1980 Lyceum show yesterday..still one of my favourite tours/setlists...one of the Youtube offerings is stating 1.4m views....astonishing for a bootleg and a often derided band!

Quote from Fabrizio

Well, if you REALLY want to go there NC got only 1% more than ATTW3 and WCD. Apocalypse now: the Horror....The Horror....I can't think of a more tired, listless, light coke, autopilot mode, contractual obligation smelling, end of the road album than WCD. Three good songs in a sea of mediocrity as far as I'm concerned. Apart from a few exceptions, overall the laziest lyrics ever penned by Genesis and to be clear why not? After an over 20 year career, with some remarkable albums under their belt. It can happen but as I said, people like it and they have spoken.

Don't you like it then??

Quote from dudeski

oh, the Mama-album doesn't have many many fans here. I wonder why, it's a good album!!

Of course it's a good album it's Genesis! Actually it's great album and ranks about 9th or 10th on my list of G albums so couldn't vote for it. I do think the track order is wrong though. It would have been better if sides one and two were mixed up a bit more. Not that keen on IA.

The top 8 are almost exactly my top 8 . I'd swap W&W for SEBTP on a hairs breadth for 2 and 3 but that's it. So you've all done very well.

Quote from thefarmer

Don't you like it then??

Not their finest hour IMO but as I said, it happens when a band is running on empty at the end of a long career. I can understand that people who got on board around that time may like it, Genesis are after all great musicians and songwriters, the energy and drive might dwindle but talent and skills are still there, as polished as ever in fact, at times too much. People who had been around longer however, cannot help comparing.

Quote from Fabrizio

Not their finest hour IMO but as I said, it happens when a band is running on empty at the end of a long career. I can understand that people who got on board around that time may like it, Genesis are after all great musicians and songwriters, the energy and drive might dwindle but talent and skills are still there, as polished as ever in fact, at times too much. People who had been around longer however, cannot help comparing.

Pedantism at it's worst. I haven't been around longer (only thirty years of being a fan for me). But my inexperienced baby ears can still muster the ability to compare WCD to earlier work and IMO it compares favorably. Yes, I prefer other albums (TOTT, duke, Abacab and CAS) but I don't think WCD demonstrates the flaws you suggest. It's less conservative than W&W (I'm not saying it's better or worse). The three worst songs IMO are never a time, since I lost you and hold on my heart. These three combined are very middle of the road but balanced by No Son of Mine, Jesus He Knows Me, Driving the Last Spike, Dreaming While You Sleep, Way of the World. I like Tell Me Why too despite its preachiness.

Quote from Fabrizio

Well, if you REALLY want to go there NC got only 1% more than ATTW3 and WCD. Apocalypse now: the Horror....The Horror....I can't think of a more tired, listless, light coke, autopilot mode, contractual obligation smelling, end of the road album than WCD. Three good songs in a sea of mediocrity as far as I'm concerned. Apart from a few exceptions, overall the laziest lyrics ever penned by Genesis and to be clear why not? After an over 20 year career, with some remarkable albums under their belt. It can happen but as I said, people like it and they have spoken.

Oh well, there you go.

Quote from thefarmer

I do think the track order is wrong though. It would have been better if sides one and two were mixed up a bit more.

Ah I love doing this, there's a whole separate thread on it but I haven't done this album. I'd change it to:

Illegal Alien

That's All

Just A Job

Mama

Silver Rainbow

Home By The Sea 1/2

It's Gonna

(Taking is so insubstantial it just evaporated before I could include it. Stick it on a b-side).

There, that's much better than what they did.

Quote from Backdrifter

Oh well, there you go.

I've been a Genesis fan for over 40 years, albums have been released , played, listened to, reviewed and criticized ad nauseum. It's safe to assume their relevance in the Genesis catalogue has sunken in by now. Polls are an indicator, more or less precise if you will but they are. If the most recent albums which have the huge advantage of being the most recent, almost invariably occupy the last positions, perhaps it isn't a coincidence.

The band is no more, they haven't released an album in over 20 years and I reckon they won't anymore.

With all this in mind, as long as I make clear that I'm expressing an opinion and I am respectful of anybody's taste and opinions which is not always the case here, as I was able to appreciate from very recent comments, I see no point in tiptoeing around or mincing words and I reserve the right to call it as I see it. Sure, some fans might think that say, Another Record, just to mention a dud is a great song, I happen to think they can write stuff like that in their sleep and by gravity a song like that, with time, gets the relevance it deserves. None. It doesn't mean somebody cannot possibly like it, more power to them but we seem to be unable to break out of the equation I like it=it's great or at least it must be great. I wish my favorite band had only released perfect albums with perfect songs, unfortunately for them, as for any other artist it wasn't always the case and I think we should be able to say that. Very few bands are able to keep the fire in their belly with a decades-spanning career, I would say that U2 for instance, whether one likes them or less, deserve a lot of respect because they constantly tried to do just that: keep the flame alive. Genesis simply didn't imo and I don't feel like blaming them, I just liked them more when they were less sleek smooth and glossy but so very intense, original and unique. There is no sin in saying it, I reckon.

Quote from Fabrizio

I've been a Genesis fan for over 40 years, albums have been released , played, listened to, reviewed and criticized ad nauseum. It's safe to assume their relevance in the Genesis catalogue has sunken in by now. Polls are an indicator, more or less precise if you will but they are. If the most recent albums which have the huge advantage of being the most recent, almost invariably occupy the last positions, perhaps it isn't a coincidence.

The band is no more, they haven't released an album in over 20 years and I reckon they won't anymore.

With all this in mind, as long as I make clear that I'm expressing an opinion and I am respectful of anybody's taste and opinions which is not always the case here, as I was able to appreciate from very recent comments, I see no point in tiptoeing around or mincing words and I reserve the right to call it as I see it. Sure, some fans might think that say, Another Record, just to mention a dud is a great song, I happen to think they can write stuff like that in their sleep and by gravity a song like that, with time, gets the relevance it deserves. None. It doesn't mean somebody cannot possibly like it, more power to them but we seem to be unable to break out of the equation I like it=it's great or at least it must be great. I wish my favorite band had only released perfect albums with perfect songs, unfortunately for them, as for any other artist, it wasn't always the case and I think we should be able to say that. Very few bands are able to keep the fire in their belly with a decades-spanning career, I would say that U2 for instance, whether one likes them or less, deserve a lot of respect because they constantly tried to do just that: keep the flame alive. Genesis simply didn't imo and I don't feel like blaming them, I just liked them more when they were less sleek smooth and glossy but so very intense, original and unique. There is no sin in saying it, I reckon.

K.

Quote from Backdrifter

Ah I love doing this, there's a whole separate thread on it but I haven't done this album. I'd change it to:

Illegal Alien

That's All

Just A Job

Mama

Silver Rainbow

Home By The Sea 1/2

It's Gonna

(Taking is so insubstantial it just evaporated before I could include it. Stick it on a b-side).

There, that's much better than what they did.

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You know, I rather like this rearrangement - well done!

It's telling for me that I voted last week and I'm not sure what I voted for!

If I did it today it would be Lamb, TOTT and WAW, but I think I voted for SEBTP rather than WAW.

I'm pretty certain they would be my top 4, but WAW and SEBTP are forever locked in combat to secure the third slot.

For me there aren't any huge surprises in the order other than the Lamb - for me it's first by a country mile - and WCD being higher than Trespass, which is enough to make me spit out my coffee

Still wondering why DUKE isn't ranked higher in that list. An important and great band album.

Erm... It's wayyyyy overrated here - above Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot?

Preposterous.

If I had to guess this list I probably would have put duke higher, maybe behind SEBTP and ToTT. I would have been wrong obviously.

It's a biased sample voting of course. Personally the big outlier for me is Abacab being so low. And w&w being so high.