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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Let The Dance--And The Collins Era--Begin!, August 26, 2002
1976's "A Trick Of The Tail" was the first Genesis album without lead singer Peter Gabriel, with drummer Phil Collins taking Gabriel's place at the mike on a full-time basis for the first time (Phil had already sung lead vocals on a pair of the band's earlier songs, "For Absent Friends" & "More Fool Me"). "A Trick Of The Tail" was a landmark album for the band, and it still stands today as one of their best. It not only showed the music world that Genesis *could* survive without Gabriel, it also proved to those who thought of Genesis as "The Peter Gabriel Band" that Gabriel was not, in fact, the only talented musician in the group. While Peter is most certainly a musical genius, and he was a fantastic frontman & songwriter for Genesis, ALL of the band members, including Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Steve Hackett, and former members including Anthony Phillips, etc., all contributed to the group's musical magic right along with Peter. "A Trick Of The Tail" was the proof of that. Now a quartet, "A Trick Of The Tail" finds Genesis still at the top of their game, with eight marvelous compositions that remain among the best in all of progressive rock, with such band staples as "Dance On A Volcano," "Squonk" (both superb Genesis rockers), the lovely, majestic songs "Entangled," "Mad Man Moon" & "Ripples," the great fun of "Robbery, Assault & Battery" & the title song, and the mindblowing coda, "Los Endos" (a sort of instrumental re-cap of the album's previous songs, with the band bidding a fond farewell to Peter Gabriel at the very end, as Collins sings "There's an angel standing in the sun/Free to get back home"---it's a line from "Supper's Ready," the band's magnum opus from 1972). The band's songwriting & musicianship here is truly sensational, with Banks, Collins, Hackett & Rutherford delivering some of their greatest work ever recorded. And Collins' voice perfectly fits the bill---if *any* singer could take over for Peter Gabriel, it was Phil. Thank God that the band didn't have to look very far for the man for the job! "A Trick Of The Tail" is classic Genesis all the way, and one of the band's greatest accomplishments. Let the dance---and the Phil Collins era---begin!
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49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pinnacle of achievement, June 22, 2000
Remember how George Harrison released five years' worth of stifled songwriting creativity after the Beatles' breakup, with the masterful "All Things Must Pass"?I have to qualify this by saying that I'm a huge Gabriel-era Genesis fan. For the most part, I can do without the Phil Collins era (okay, "Duke" is pretty good). I even prefer Ray Wilson's work on "...Calling All Stations..." to most of Phil's. But despite that, I have to say that "A Trick of the Tail" is my single favorite Genesis album, PERIOD. As wonderful as Peter was, he really had demanded too much control over the songwriting. As a result, this first album sans Peter - where they were clearly under enormous pressure to prove that they could survive without him - ended up being like a songwriters' and instrumentalists' clinic. Tony Banks's songwriting, Mike Rutherford's and Steve Hackett's guitar playing, and Phil Collins's singing and drumming all get a great workout here, and there isn't a single clunker in the bunch - "Squonk," "Dance on a Volcano," and "Entangled" are the clear winners here, though Banks's keyboards really shine on "Ripples" and "Mad Man Moon." Only "Robbery, Assault & Battery" ever strikes me as a bit dated or campy - but it's strong enough instrumentally to overcome the somewhat forced lyrics. I never get tired of listening to this one on roadtrips, and it often rocks harder than much of their other work. So - despite preferring 1969-75 Genesis overall - it's usually the album I use to introduce newbies to the band. My recommendation is without reservation.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Goodbye Peter, Hello Phil!, September 10, 2001
This album was, as all good Genesis fans know, the first album produced after Peter Gabriel left the band during their tour to support "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". Many in the press and in the general public had pretty much written Genesis off after Peter's departure. As strange as this may seem now, it was not so hard to believe at the time. During the band's previous career, Peter had affected a powerful stage presence due to his use of makeup, props, and costumes. It was widely believed at the time that Peter pretty much wrote everything and that Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins were just his backup band. However, Genesis themselves knew different, and they set out to prove it in spectacular fashion. After Peter, the remaining members conducted a long, exhaustive, but ultimately fruitless search to find a lead vocalist before Phil Collins reluctantly stepped out from behind his drumset to assume singing duties. Ironically, he had provided "secondary" vocals for the band for quite a while, most notably on "Colony of Slippermen" on the Lamb album, as well as lead vocals on a couple of tracks from "Foxtrot" and "Selling England By The Pound". However, it was not until this album that Genesis and the world would realize that Phil Collins was a first-class singer, in addition to being a drumming powerhouse. The album starts off very strongly with "Dance on a Volcano", which is still one of my all-time favorite Genesis tracks, largely on the strength of Steve Hackett's excellent guitar. Next up is the haunting "Entangled", a otherworldly, yet hilarious piece concerning the medical profession and the high cost thereof. "Squonk" follows, a poppy song about a mythological woodland creature that, to me, foreshadows the Genesis of the 80's. In fact, I feel that this track, as well as the fast-paced and funny "Robbery, Assault and Battery", would fit right in on the "Genesis" and "Invisible Touch" albums of the mid-80s. "Mad Man Moon" - Tony Banks' compositional skills at his finest! "Ripples" - A bittersweet saga about aging and the loss of youth. "Trick of the Tail" - Another Genesis classic about culture shock and alienation, as well as the longing everyone feels sometime to return home, where everyone understands you and no one sees you as different or inferior. No one makes music like this anymore, folks. The album wraps up with the instumental "Los Endos", a fine instrumental that includes parts of the melodies from some of the other tracks on the album. When this album was released, it sold more copies than all other Genesis releases combined to that point. Legend even has it that this album was the favorite of Princess Diana. As some other reviewers have said, this may be the one Genesis album that everyone likes, both the Peter Gabriel fans and the Phil Collins fans. As for me, I think it's among Genesis' best efforts overall, although I am one of those rare people who actually like and can appreciate both "Supper's Ready" and "Invisible Touch".An interesting note here - this album and "Wind and Wuthering" are, I believe, the only Genesis albums where individual songwriting credit is given. It's interesting to see who wrote which songs and compare their musical styles. On this album, the lion's share of the compositional duties were shared by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford. Phil Collins had not yet really come into his own as a writer, and Steve Hackett, by this point, was getting shoved more and more to the side. This had a big influence on his decision to leave Genesis in 1977, and it's too bad. His talents are showcased very well on this album. It makes one wonder what the Genesis hit machine would have produced in the 80's if he had stayed around.
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