  Genesis - Duke When guitarist Steve Hackett left the band, Genesis’ changed their music style from progressive rock to pop rock. This ofcourse this didn’t happen overnight. They have two major transition albums: Duke and And Then There Were Three. The latter was more of an experiment. They were looking for a new sound, but kept using the previous wining formula. Two years later Duke came out and they created something great: a semi-concept progressive rock album with some pop songs woven in between the prog tracks. As for the two hits Misunderstanding and Turn It On Again, they’ve done a pretty good job. Turn It On Again is great, and misunderstanding is a good pop song. Phil Collins’ voice is amazing as always and the instrumental parts are often very interesting. The songs Behind The Lines, Duchess, Guide Vocal, Turn It On Again, Duke’s Travel and Duke’s End all belong together, thus making this a semi-concept album. There’s some pop-parts in these songs but mostly they’re prog. Especially The 8 minute Duke’s Travel which is nearly only instrumental. Behind The Lines is a strong intro for this album, and fades out in Duchess which is probably my favourite on this album (next to Duke’s travel). The chorus is great, and the instrumental parts are really good. I don’t really get Guide Vocal, but luckily it’s only 1:21. It’s dull and I don’t find it fitting together with the other songs. Turn It On Again has one of the best vocals on the album, but the main instrumental melody starts to be anoying as hell after two listens. Duke’s Travel on the other side has no way of ever being anoying. It basically has everyting a good prog song should have. And after 8 minutes it only feels like two minutes are over and you’re sad that it’s already over. This is by far the highlight on the album! And even though there’s only one little vocal section, Phil Collins only enriches the song with his voice. Lastly there’s Duke’s End, an instrumental summary of the other songs. Mostly just replaying the intro and ending with a great climax. Besides this concept-part there’s 6 other songs on this album. Man of Our Times is in my opinion not really that much of a great song. It’s just like any pop song, and after a while the melody starts to become anoying. Misunderstanding is a lot better even though I used to skip this song, but now I think it’s melody is fun and it’s easy to start singing along with the chorus. Heathaze is one of the better songs of this album, it’s Collins in his best form. Even though it’s nearly only vocal the song isn’t written by Collins, but by Tony Banks. The lyrics are also very nice, and it has some great build up parts. Maybe one of the slower songs on this album, but it’s one of the best. Alone Tonight makes me think of some Disney movie. It’s a nice tune, but it really does not work with the rest of the album. On it’s own the song is ok though. Cul-De-Sac recreates the atmosphere of the previous songs, sadly it’s not one of the bands favourites and it’s never been played live. Please Don’t Ask is a necessary evil on this album. The song on itself is once again ok, but it doesn’t really fit the album. Yet the song is necessary to increase the effect of Duke’s Travel, which follows this song. Overall I would rate this album pretty high in a best-of-Genesis list. There’s some downsides though, but Duke’s Travel on itself makes up for these minor slips. |
