During the latter part of the seventies, Genesis began to slowly
\nedge away from their progressive, art-rock roots. The evolution
\ninto a “mainstream” rock band became complete some might say, with
\nthe release of
\nDuke<\/i>, a slick, polished album that would spawn two huge hits
\nand launch an era of unrivaled success for the band. Genesis would
\neclipse even the mightiest
\nBillboard<\/i> rival during their tenure at the top of the charts
\nfor the next several years.<\/p>\n
At this point, the old-school Genesis fans had either accepted
\nthis fact and stuck around to see what happened, or gave up and
\njumped ship. It’s hard to blame them. They were not the same band
\nthey had been a few years earlier. They were playing a much
\ndifferent style of music. However, the fact they were incredibly
\ntalented musicians had not changed, and they proved they were still
\ncapable of gorgeous compositions. The expected accusations arose
\ncomplaining they had sold out, they went commercial, yadda, yadda.
\nDespite the nay-saying from many quarters, this is no mere pop
\nalbum. As is expected from these guys, the compositions are tight
\nand satisfying. Even if they had largely shuffled off their
\nprog-rock cloaks,
\nDuke<\/i> is still a powerful album, and a cut above most of the
\nmainstream albums of the day. Despite the neo-pop wrappings, they
\nthrow enough musical quirks to keep the artistic edge intact. Throw
\nin some of the best guitar work of Mike Rutherford’s career, and
\nloads of keys from Tony Banks, and the end result is very
\nsatisfying.<\/p>\n
Genesis was ripe for some well-deserved radio exposure. They got
\nit in spades with the two big hits from
\nDuke<\/i>, “Turn It On Again” and “Misunderstanding.” For a band
\nlike this, these were exceedingly simplistic songs. But, they were
\njust what the people were looking for. The timing couldn’t have
\nbeen more right. Synth-pop was taking over the airwaves, and
\nnew-wave bands were making a huge impact. Genesis took that
\nsimplistic new-wave styling, fused it with their own brand of
\nmusic, and maintained a lot of the sophisticated compositional
\nskills that had made them art-rock legends.<\/p>\n
\nDuke<\/i> began as a concept album, but the concept was never
\nfleshed out to fill the entire album. The story of Duke and Duchess
\nmimics the Hollywood classic
\nA Star Is Born<\/i>, but it’s hard to tell right off which songs
\nare part of the story and which are not. I would have liked to see
\nthem encompass one side of the album, but instead, a sort of
\n“mini-suite” bookends the album, and a couple of the other tracks
\nfeel like they started out as part of the concept.<\/p>\n
One thing I like about this album on the whole, is the very
\npalpable mood changes the album goes through from song to song.
\nFrom the upbeat, poppy “Turn It On Again” and the manic energy of
\n“Behind The Lines,” to the somberness of “Heathaze” and
\n“Cul-De-Sac.” The musical and lyrical textures are all over the
\nmap, which is one factor that helps this album rise above simple
\npop music. In spite of (or maybe because of) the broad emotional
\nlandscape, the album is very tight and cohesive as a whole. This is
\nimportant as they had a habit of turning out albums full of great
\nsongs that didn’t always flow well from end to end.<\/p>\n
You don’t have to listen too hard to hear some of the old-school
\nGenesis. “Heathaze” harkens back to the album
\nWind & Wuthering<\/i>, and has a more mature feel than most
\nof the other songs on this album. Tony Banks’ piano gives the song
\na mournful tone, and Collins’ vocal is right on the money. The
\nclosing tracks, which are also the finale of the
\nDuke<\/i> mini-suite, “Duke’s Travels” and “Duke’s End” create a
\ndynamic coda to the album, reminiscent of some of their classics,
\nand full of the sort of dynamic interplay that shows off their
\nexceptional musical abilities. Tony Banks really shines on these
\ntracks; his solos are reminiscent of his best work from the Gabriel
\nyears.<\/p>\n
I guess I feel fortunate that I enjoyed them before, during, and
\nafter the transition. Although
\nDuke<\/i> would turn out to be, for me personally, the last great
\nalbum by a great band.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":27045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5883],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38371","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-genesis","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38371"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}