I agree with the general idea here that the music is brilliant but the lyrics are not so much. The story isn't amusing, just twee.
I might add that I found the "monster mouse" ending really confusing when I first had the album, because my LP was a cheap reissue without the lyrics on the inner sleeve. I couldn't understand the words leading up to it and there wasn't the explanation that it was the "cat's story."
Back in 2019 when the 2CD remaster first came out, I made the following comment:
QuoteI compared the track times from CD 1 from the remaster to those on the original CD, and most of them are either several seconds shorter or longer.
I finally decided to make an actual track-by-track comparison and found the following:
- A few tracks are shorter on the remaster due to being faded earlier. The worst offender is "It's Not Easy," which lost over 20 seconds.
- Four tracks are longer on the remaster, but no two are longer for the same reason.
-- "Sally" is faded out a few seconds later.
-- "I Want Your Heart" has an extra "I need your love" right before the closing instrumental part.
-- "Falling For Love" has an extra chorus at the end.
-- "Trail of Tears" is a really odd case. It's over 20 seconds longer, but this appears to be due to its being slowed down about 3 half-steps. The intro is a little shorter, and there's a slight difference in the pause before the final section starts. There also seem to be differences in some of the incidental little keyboard noises.
I have now changed my customized CDR copy of CD 1, which has always reflected the track order of the U.S. LP, to have the longer remaster versions of "Sally," "I Want Your Heart" and "Falling For Love." Everything else is still from the original CD.
I'm amazed you needed to ask. For the first time, I actually didn't buy Circus & The Nightwhale on vinyl because of the hideous cover.
Ah, yes, how could I forget that one? 
BTW, in the thread for that album, I mentioned that it looked like a Kim Poor cover!
Second worst cover art he's ever used. I even prefer Cured to this.
What do you consider his worst cover?
I always disliked a number of the Kim Poor covers, especially HIGHLY STRUNG, so WOLFLIGHT isn't anywhere near the worst for me. Neither is CURED, for that matter.
I think my favorite is "Black Thunder," although that one could have ended after about 4 minutes without losing much.
I'm also a fan of "Love Song to a Vampyre," although I would have liked it to have ended differently as well; fading it out on repeats of the wordless chorus would have been perfect. I always picture the lyric (one of my favorite ones from Steve) as being told from a female's point of view, in spite of its being sung by Steve, and I even have a picture in my head of what the participants in the story would look like.
Several other tracks strike me as just not hitting what they're aiming for. I think this album marks the point where I started liking Steve's albums less than before, although BEYOND THE SHROUDED HORIZON was starting to point in that direction.
Not sure how well the words scan metrically.
On the album version Pete sings "shedded its tail" as "shedded a tail." This goof is corrected on the shorter version recorded for the single, with the different ending.
BTW, I've heard an early live version where the verse melody is very different, probably as written by Tony or Mike before Pete got his hands on it.
(Instrumental).
Great song!
My purchase of SOUNDTRACKS marks the first time I ever heard of Fish, and it was a while before I knew what band he was with. (I later bought Marillion's CLUTCHING AT STRAWS after hearing parts of it at a record store, but got tired of it after several listens and passed it on.) I don't really care for any of the vocals on SOUNDTRACKS, but Fish's are better than Jim Diamond's at least. I like "Shortcut" but don't consider it outstandingly good.
An average and fairly representative track from a generally good Hackett album. I've always thought it would be improved by having the weird pseudo-vocal bit (aaah... ahhh... AHHH!) only appear once.
Why?
I interpreted DM's comment as dry humour but I'm sure he'll explain if he feels like it.
No humour, dry or otherwise. The "why" is that I've long wondered whether that's Chris playing (uncredited) on that particular ARCHIVE 1 demo. And I find it disappointing that he doesn't seem to know himself. To be fair, though, he was being asked about whether he ever played on various songs at all, not actually about what recordings he played on. If he hasn't checked out his old band beyond TRESPASS then he may not even know about that demo being on the box set.
I have to say I'm disappointed that he himself doesn't remember whether or not he played the drums on "Hey!"
Notable to me only for being Ant's first released lead vocal. Not bad, and fits well into its spot on the album, but doesn't do a lot for me overall. The lyrics seem to be trying to make various points but not really succeeding.
P.S.: Vivienne McAuliffe? She doesn't appear on this track.
Nothin' seems to move fast enough
When time isn't on your side
twee and whimsical
Well, I can't deny that "Bike," at least, fits that description.
Who says Floyd never did humour?
If you're not familiar with them already, you should check out the early Floyd songs "Bike" and "Corporal Clegg." Also, the end of "Grantchester Meadows." (Although in retrospect, I suppose Syd Barrett could have written "Bike" in all seriousness for all we know!)
Well there's another issue I have with it, which is a broader thing beyond that one track: I can't abide children's choirs on rock and pop songs. They make my skin crawl.
I actually kind of liked it in the Floyd song at first, as it was an unexpected thing from the band. Once I heard the whole album, though, I didn't like most of the rest of it (except for "Comfortably Numb").
TWELVE holds the record as the longest Genesis-related vinyl LP. Each aside is well over 30 minutes long.
I did the math on the track times given on the back of my CD copy and came up with this:
Side 1 - 30:41
Side 2 - 33:45
For some reason I had thought Side 1 was just a bit longer.
I don't see the similarity between this and the other songs named, but it doesn't matter. This is one of my favorite Genesis non-album tracks and I like it better than some of the songs that were included on CAS. And it's far better than the other Wilson-era non-album tracks, with only "Run Out of Time" coming anywhere close.
Of course, I know there are mixed feelings among Genesis fans regarding the Wilson era in general, and that will inevitably apply to this specific track.
A difficult and challenging album, but ultimately rewarding. My favorite is "July," which has about the only hummable melody on the album!
I picked up my original vinyl copy of this many years ago at a used record store, at the same time as PP&P IV & VI.
BTW, TWELVE holds the record as the longest Genesis-related vinyl LP. Each side is well over 30 minutes long.
Well, I guess I asked for it, but I've run into another arrogant you-know-what on Wikipedia (or maybe the same as one time before?) who was "policing" a Genesis-related page. He talked to me like I was some kind of rampant repeat violator and even threatened me with being banned from editing. Apparently, I was guilty of "original research, personal analysis and synthesis" -- i.e., pointing out, on one line of one article, what anyone could observe for themselves.
neither are the "ache wake snake" (?) intonations, or whatever it is, at the end.
Ah, good point. What do those words sound like to others here?
