Genesis

This was Genesis first album (predating "Trespass", which many assume to be their first album), and was produced by pop music impresario Jonathan King. King's influence is strong, with strings overlaid on many of the short, pop orientated songs….

Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks has made several stabs at a solo career since 1978, writing and recording in various styles and occasionally under different group names. However, none of his attempts have been very commercially successful, a sore point for the man many deem responsible for a large portion of the Genesis sound…

Broadcast by the BBC as Together And Apart, Sum Of The Parts is the official authorised story of Genesis made with the full co-operation of the band members. It tells of the band s formation at Charterhouse (where Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford were all pupils) in the late sixties and the release of their debut album From Genesis To Revelation…

Depending upon your point of view, Genesis in 1976/1977 was either a band ascending toward its peak commercially, or a group crippled by the departure of a key member, and living on artistic borrowed time. In reality, they were sort of both, and fortunately for the members, their commerciality was more important than their artistic street cred, as their burgeoning record sales and huge audiences on tour during that period attested…

Prog rock audiences have always been receptive to box sets, especially sets that include an abundance of rare material – witness the success of the numerous King Crimson sets. When it came time to assemble their own box sets, Genesis chose to follow the path of rarities instead of merely rehashing their old hits. That means, of course, that Genesis Archives, Vol. 1: 1967-1975 is the province of hardcore fans and collectors, not casual listeners, since there is nothing but unreleased material on the four-disc set…

The first Genesis Archive made sense. It covered the Peter Gabriel years, an era that was not only supremely creative for the band, but filled with rarities, forgotten tracks, outtakes, B-sides, BBC sessions, and live performances begging for a collection. It was a box set for fans and it filled its purpose splendidly. Its sequel, Genesis Archive 2: 1976-1992, attempts to fill the role for the Genesis Mach II, otherwise known as the Phil Collins years, but the problem is, the Collins era was completely different from Gabriel's…

Platinum Collection is a career-spanning box set by British veteran progressive rock/pop rock band Genesis. It was released in 2004 in the UK and one year later in North America…

Foxtrot is where Genesis began to pull all of its varied inspirations into a cohesive sound – which doesn't necessarily mean that the album is streamlined, for this is a group that always was grandiose even when they were cohesive, or even when they rocked, which they truly do for the first time here…

Moments of Genesis are as spooky and arty as those on Abacab – in particular, there's the tortured howl of "Mama," uncannily reminiscent of Phil Collins' Face Value, and the two-part "Second Home by the Sea" – but this eponymous 1983 album is indeed a rebirth, as so many self-titled albums delivered in the thick of a band's career often are. Here the art rock functions as coloring to the pop songs, unlike on Abacab and Duke, where the reverse is true…

If Genesis truly established themselves as progressive rockers on Trespass, Nursery Cryme is where their signature persona was unveiled: true English eccentrics, one part Lewis Carroll and one part Syd Barrett, creating a fanciful world that emphasized the band's instrumental prowess as much as Peter Gabriel's theatricality. Which isn't to say that all of Nursery Cryme works…