Customer Reviews

Abacab

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I find it interesting to see other reviewers pointing out that "Abacab", originally released in September of 1981, was a huge departure for Genesis--it's an excellent point, because, indeed, this is the album that truly marks the beginning of the "pop"-era Genesis, as it's generally referred to. There's a certain timeless gloss & punchiness here that sets this album apart from all of the Genesis albums that came before it, and it 'sets the stage', so to speak, for their next couple of albums that followed. It's not exactly a coincidence either--David Hentschel who co-produced the previous two albums was gone, & this album was engineered by Hugh Padgham who had also engineered and assisted on Phil Collins' debut solo album from earlier the same year. "Abacab" was also the first album the group recorded at their own studio. Now, don't get the wrong idea--contrary to what certain people will try to make you believe, this is not an album of light & frothy 'sell-out' pop songs. The level of musical intelligence & sophistication is still astonishing, & track after track is intoxicatingly catchy. The 7+ minute title track starts the album off with a bang--it's got an arresting moody atmosphere, & it's simply loaded with savvy keyboard & guitar licks from Tony Banks & Mike Rutherford respectively, laid over Phil Collins' crisp drumming. Tony Banks' solo composition "Me And Sarah Jane" is a definitive example of his compositional brilliance--it flows seamlessly from section to section, working its way through different moods; it truly takes you on a journey. "Dodo" starts off with an exciting, dramatic blast before the irresitible synth riff kicks in, and it's followed by an arrestingly contemplative minor-keyed section before eventually working its way back to the opening section in thrilling fashion. All that said, this ain't a run of the mill "pop" album by any means! Yes, there are some strongly pop-rock-flavored tracks, but they're great in their own right like the highly melodic "No Reply At All" with its strangely hyperactive keyboards; Phil's haunting ballad "Man On the Corner"; & Mike's plodding, yet soulful & soaring ballad "Like It Or Not" with wonderfully passionate Phil vocals. "Keep It Dark" is ultra-crafty, both musically and lyrically, with an intoxicating chorus. And the album's most notorious track--the jokey, quasi-atonal & repetitive "Who Dunnit?"--is exhilirating silly. Quite simply, "Abacab" is one in a long string of masterpiece albums that Genesis put out. Like so many of their other albums, "Abacab" is a supremely rich listening experience from an astonishingly creative & consistent band.

(P.S. During the "Abacab" sessions, Genesis recorded one of their best songs ever--the beautiful, epic pop-rocker "You Might Recall"--but they left it off the album. Check it out on either the original US version of "Three Sides Live", or on the "Archive #2" box set.)

Genesis did not "stab their fans in the back" with Abacab. The "fans" who felt this way (like trickoftail and all the rude boo-ers from the Abacab tour) were never really Genesis fans in the first place. They were just progressive rock fans who liked Yes/ELP/Rush etc. and some of the longer epic pieces and concept albums that Genesis did.

Yes, Abacab doesn't sound like early Genesis or other early prog bands...so what? It's still a great album full of fresh, creative ideas. Progressive rock isn't the only good style of music on the planet. To say that this is on the same level as Backstreet Boys or N'Sync is just plain ignorant, just as it is to say that it sounds just like Phil Collins' solo material. The only songs that sound anything like Phil solo on this album are No Reply At All and Man On The Corner, the rest are definitely Genesis songs.

Bottom line: if you only like the prototypical "progressive" side of Genesis, like the 10-minute epics and the long keyboard/guitar solos and the classical-sounding arrangements and the concept albums, then you might not like this album. But if you like bands that aren't afraid to change their sound and experiment with new ideas (which is the REAL meaning of "progressive"), then give this one a chance.

THE BAND: Mike Rutherford (electric guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals), Phil Collins (lead vocals, drums & percussion), Tony Banks (keyboards, backing vocals).

THE DISC: (1981) 9 songs clocking in at just over 47 minutes. Originally released in September 1981, this digitally remastered edition released in October 1994 (no bonus tracks). Included with the disc is a 14-page booklet containing song titles/credits, song lyrics, thank you's, and a center page listing all albums and album covers released between 1970 and 1993. Recorded at The Farm, Surrey (England). All songs written by Collins, Banks and/or Rutherford. This is Genesis' 11th studio album. Album cover artwork by Bill Smith. Label - Atlantic.

COMMENTS: "Abacab" is my 2nd favorite Phil Collins era Genesis album - behind its predecessor "Duke". In my opinion, this was the last rock album, before the band went totally pop. There are 3 legit chart hits here - perhaps the best song on the album "No Reply At All", followed by "Man On The Corner" and the title track. There was also a great song recorded at the "Abacab" sessions, but NOT included on the album - the song "Paperlate" (later found on the EP, "3x3"). "Abacab" reached #1 in the UK, and #7 in the U.S. (remarkably the first Platinum seller in the U.S.). The 3 hits mentioned above are wonderful Genesis songs. The slow "Man On The Corner" opened the door for Collins with his electronic drum beats and minimalist soundscape format on future Genesis albums as well as Collins' solo material. The Tony Banks authored "Me And Sarah Jane" is an average (filler) song at best... for me, it has a decent beat, but it simply too long at 6 minutes, goes nowhere, and Rutherford's guitars are simply absent. "Dodo/Lurker" is a good song but way too long at seven-and-a-half minutes. "Like It Or Not" and "Another Record" are good songs - both fitting into the slower (almost ballad) category. The one song that brings the whole album experience down is "Who Dunnit?" (thankfully the shortest song here at just over 3 minutes). Dare I say this is one of their worst songs in the entire Genesis library. Regardless, this is a great album and worthy in your collection - just get used to skipping track six (4 stars).

(...) Nice work! It was really starting to get to me(but I had this idea in my head that is was over.) Phil once said: "Since the middle ages, there have been religious wars. But blind faith often kills the innocent." Ain't that the truth in this case. I had better things do then listen to them whine and mope about how mean ol' Phil Collins turned a progressive band into a sell-out which really wasn't the case. I'm not a fan of progressive rock myself, but I loved Selling England By The Pound. But let me tell you something, if the mission of the progreessive rock fans was to convince me to listen to Gabriel and Hackett Genesis, it didn't work. In fact, they DISCOURAGED me to listening to that era because I didn't want to be associated with them. Now that rude reviews are gone, I believe I will be able to freely listen to 70's Genesis without hanging my head in shame. Hopefully, the snob-rockers have been banned, and we Genesis fans can try to get along in peace.

To whoever keeps accusing Genesis of being uncreative because they used "machines" on this album: Drum machines and digital synthesizers are just as much real instruments as pianos and guitars are. Contrary to what some believe, it does not necessarily show a lack of talent to use instruments like these. Granted, a lot of pop singers will simply select a preset drum machine pattern and a digital loop sample and sing over that, but that's not what Genesis did on Abacab. Phil Collins came up with some very inventive rhythms on the drum machine (check out In The Air Tonight, Man On The Corner, etc.) and used them mainly for atmosphere. He didn't use them in place of real drums, because he always added real drums on top of the machine and played against it. This is very different than what most pop acts do.

Likewise, Tony Banks took advantage of the new set of sounds that became available with digital synths in the 1980s. He selected sounds that were appropriate in context and played them as such. This does not show a lack of talent at all, he's still carefully choosing the right sound and playing an appropriate part, just like he always did. I can understand why someone might prefer the analog sounds of the 1970s, but that still has nothing to do with talent.

Also, in reply to the "no Peter no Steve no Genesis" argument: Peter and Steve were certainly important members of Genesis, but the backbone of the band has always been Tony and Mike. Most of the music and a good deal of the sound has usually come from them. Peter was mainly a lyricist and a showman, and Steve is an excellent guitarist but he didn't contribute much to the band in terms of writing. So I think as long as you've got Tony and Mike, you've got Genesis.

Anyway, back to Abacab...it's not one of Genesis' best albums but it's certainly not the worst either. It doesn't have the epic grandeur of Selling England and The Lamb, but it still has some unique and clever songwriting, and doesn't sound stale like some of the later PC-era albums or Calling All Stations does. So three stars seems about right.

Since when was progressive rock bad? When it became a big watered-down mass of cliches, and everybody thought that by adding a few keyboard/guitar solos or by writing pseudo-"intellectual" lyrics or by making sure at least one song per album was 10 minutes or longer or by naming their songs/albums after classic novels, they were somehow reaching a higher level of artistic greatness than other bands, without paying any attention to the actual quality of their music. Bands like Styx, Asia, Dream Theater, Flower Kings, etc. are all examples of third-rate "progressive" rock. I never said progressive rock sucks, it's just like any other style of music -- some of it is good and some of it is bad. I do not have limited intelligence, and I do not listen to much pop radio. If you were as "intelligent" as you claim, you'd realize how silly a lot of prog bands' lyrics are, and how formulaic a lot of the music eventually came to be. Genesis didn't want to fall into that rut, so they tried something new.

Yes, pop music was around before progressive rock, but a lot of the elements of progressive rock were around long before it became labeled as such. Genesis developed their style from a wide variety of influences, and albums like The Lamb are both pop AND progressive. ("Pop" and "progressive" are not opposites -- I know that's hard for you to understand.) The fact that you keep comparing Abacab to Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears just shows how totally clueless you are about this kind of music. BB and Britney are manufactured pop acts who are more about image than anything else, and are simply being used as marketing tools to screaming teenagers. Abacab is creative, clever pop music that combines Genesis' progressive history with newer 80's styles and comes up with something that's at least somewhat original, if not completely new.

Just because Abacab is a "pop" album doesn't mean there's nothing new about it. How many other bands had written a prog/Motown combo like No Reply At All before? What bands had written songs with the bizarre structures and production techniques of Keep It Dark or Whodunnit? True, some bands had used drum machines before, but how many of them came up with the inventive rhythms that Phil did and used them in the same way? To say that Abacab is nothing new just because pop music had been around before it is like saying the Beatles or the Rolling Stones had done nothing new just because rock-and-roll had been around before them.

All artists need to change their style a bit at some point in their careers, otherwise they just become stale parodies of themselves. And I'd much rather hear a song with some actual fresh ideas in it, rather than stale self-parodies such as the highly-overrated "Inside And Out." And I'll say it again, there is plenty of difference between this album and Phil's solo material, and if you don't notice that then you aren't listening very closely.

Anyway, can we please take this to e-mail? This is a review site, not a discussion forum.

Good album. Some fairly pure Phil Collins material (not a bad thing); plenty of good solid Tony Banks. And the sound of this remaster is notably superior to the original CD release: better dynamics, better stereo separation. Better overall.

But wow, look at the vitriol that prog-rock fans will sling at any iconic band that changes its sound. Well, Abacab is where Genesis *started* for me -- that's right, with MTV -- and yes, I have sensed a quality decline in subsequent albums. (If you think Abacab is a pop sell-out, you haven't listened to Invisible Touch or, worse, We Can't Dance.) But! There's always been at least a little good stuff to keep me coming back. (In truth, I still love Invisible Touch, despite my best efforts to go with the anti-corporate flow and hate it.) I haven't yet gotten into Gabriel-era Genesis, but I'm looking forward to exploring it someday. Plenty to choose from! If you don't like their later music, don't buy the darned stuff. Peter Gabriel did move on with a solo career, in case you didn't notice.

"Who Dunnit" is one of my favorite tracks on Abacab. It's weird, but intentionally so. It's a playful riff: "Who Dunnit" always sounded to me like "Abacab" played sideways, if you can picture that.

How do you expect to be taken seriously when you can't even get your facts right?

Number one, The Lamb was not "all written by Pete." It was mostly a group-written effort. Even one of the lyrics (The Light Dies Down On Broadway) wasn't written by Pete, and Phil did contribute a lot to the album and even wrote the melody line to Lilywhite Lilith (which was originally used in a song called "The Light.") If you're such a "genuine" fan I'd think you would know this.

Also, Steve did not leave because he "saw the writing on the wall," he left because he wanted to have a solo career and write songs on his own. The band wasn't willing to perform his solo pieces because they wanted to write songs by committee. It had nothing to do with artistic differences. The fact that they changed their style afterward had nothing to do with Steve's departure, they just wanted to do that.

It is pure ignorance to say that something can't be both pop and progressive. If pop music has new ideas and pulls together various influences to come up with something original, then it's also progressive. Genesis was one of the best examples of a progressive pop band, the only one that might be a better example is the Beatles.

You keep saying that because this is a pop album, there's nothing new or fresh about it. If that's so, then name ONE song from before the time of this album that has similar ideas or structures as Whodunnit or Keep It Dark. Granted songs like No Reply At All and and Another Record draw from previous styles of music, but what they do with them is totally unique. And besides, early Genesis draws from a lot of styles that were around long before the time of "progressive rock" so you can't blame this album alone for doing that. This album has a lot more fresh ideas than albums by Asia or GTR, which were bands that mainly recycled and watered down a bunch of prog cliches from the 70s and added nothing new. I'm grateful that Genesis didn't go in THAT direction, as most people consider GTR to be far worse than anything Genesis put out in the 80s.

The reason I was comparing The Lamb to this album is because it has a lot of 60s R&B/Motown influence, especially in the melodies and bass playing. Most of their other 70s albums have a stricter, more "classical" sound, but The Lamb has a rockier, more soulful edge, like Duke and Abacab. Both Peter and Phil have stated that 60s soul/pop was one of their biggest influences, so its no surprise that it comes through on albums like these as well as their own solo projects.

Just because Abacab sold well doesn't mean they "sold out." "Selling out" means to compromise your principles solely for the purpose of making money. Genesis was still in the process of making Abacab when Face Value sales started increasing, so that couldn't have affected the direction they took. Granted, by the time of IT and WCD Genesis had turned into mainly a hit machine that got caught up in chart success but it hadn't happened yet on Abacab. I'm sorry that you felt stabbed in the back by this album but there are plenty of fans that had been following Genesis from the early days that still loved Abacab. Besides, you even gave ATTW3 and CAS good ratings so you must have some liking for post-Hackett Genesis. How would you like it if someone called YOU a poser for giving those albums good ratings? It wouldn't be any less reasonable than the accusations you've been making.

Like many Genesis fans, I stopped caring after Wind and Wuthering. After Steve left, what point was there?

But one needs to remember the other three guys were consummate musicians. Listening to this album, you can catch the art rock past mixed with the pop future, and it works beautifully. Those who like longer songs with instrumentals, like myself, can enjoy "Dodo," and the title track. Even the shorter songs on here are still near the 5 minute mark. Among these, the intro to "Another Record" is very cool and "Keep it Dark" is enjoyable and just long enough.

The rest of this could have probably fit onto "The Lamb" if the lyrics were altered. Nothing much changed when Steve left except a new direction, which all bands take. Imagine if the Beatles had kept making Hard Day's Night. We'd get bored after 11 albums. It was time for a change.

Besides, the term progressive means moving music forward. This was moving pop music forward with unusual beats, clever arrangements and an overall effect that did not pander to the listener. Not every experiment works (Who Dunnit) but the nature of prog rock is to try it anyway. That's why we listen.

In the Genesis repertoire, this is one of the finer albums, just as listenable as Trespass and better than the second half of The Lamb Lies Down. Despite what one may think about the "sellout," they should realize the band did not sell out. They just moved in a different direction.

People who love dinosaur rock or are living in the drug induced 70's are against change. Genesis has evolved with each new record to the new sounds and technology available. Open your mind to newer music by classic artists. This album hold true to the old Genesis and offers a look in the evolution of the new Genesis. Eveyone changes as they get older. Personally I do not feel sold out, I think they (RCB) brought a fresh sound to their music.