I think while not exactly a favourite IT is an excellent pop song..
I wonder if the fact I detest that song so much it's because it's Genesis' and how I would have reacted, had been by another artist. Perhaps it would grate me less but I still think it wouldn't be on my radar. Fact is that I find the kind of 'evolution' they had insincere for lack of better words. Mama is pop, so is FYFM or even Keep it Dark and I don't have a problem with those. Misunderstanding as I said, is something else, to me it is simply ugly and they don't have a problem admitting that they included it because it had single potential. It doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the album. IT though doesn't have the same problem, it is sleek, smooth, polished….Just too much. The Beatles went from She Loves you to a Day in the Life and it makes sense but Genesis.... To me it was simply odd to hear a group of Musicians who had been around for almost two decades and were pushing 40, suddenly discovering pop, that kind of pop. Ultimately, IT charted and was very successful and THAT makes it a good pop song, taste, quality and subjectivity notwithstanding. Is it an excellent pop song? I really wouldn't know, I think, as pop songs go, Mike wrote better. Anyway, I know that it does nothing for me.