Amazon.co.uk Review
The 1975 departure of vocalist
Peter Gabriel--following the epic
Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour--left this band with a creative vacuum that they struggled gamely to fill. In promoting drummer
Phil Collins to the role of frontman, they signalled a decisive shift away from the prog-rock theatrics of their previous work, and toward a more conventional (and commercial) adult-rock sound. This double live album--recorded in 1977--finds them attempting to reconcile both their early and middle periods, and certainly, on such Gabriel-era tunes as "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" and the magisterial "Supper's Ready", Collins shows himself to be a perfectly proficient replacement. Yet for all his vocal chops, there's something vital missing: a necessary sense of the perverse. Instead, both band and singer run through these nightmares of unreason like the durable rock classics they are--and as a result, Genesis forfeit much of what had originally made them unique.
--Andrew McGuire
CD Description
After Peter Gabriel left Genesis, the band proved able to carry on without him, making high-quality albums with Phil Collins as the frontman. On the stage, though, where Gabriel'soutrageous costumes, antics, and charisma made Genesis concerts the stuff of legend, the Collins-era band had even moreto prove. Those who hadn't seen the post-Gabriel group livewere served notice by SECONDS OUT that this was a performance unit to be reckoned with.
For the tour from which thisalbum is taken, the band borrowed drummer Bill Bruford (between this and his time with King Crimson and Yes, Bruford was truly the prog-rock drummer de rigueur in the '70s) and set about exploring both new and old tunes with equal aplomb. Steve Hackett was still on hand, and his majestic guitar lines mix with Tony Banks's stately synths for that vintage Genesis sound on Gabriel-era epics such as "Supper's Ready" as well as newer tunes like "Squonk" and "Afterglow".