Genesis - Abacab

Phil Collins might be swinging away the late '90s, but in 1981 he was sharpening his pop chops, from his first solo offering to this, the first Genesis album to break the hallowed million-copy mark stateside. But Abacab wasn't entirely about charting Top 40 singles ("No Reply At All," "Man on the Corner," and the title track); it still exhibited some late-stage evidence of a trio courting the art-rock muse that had graced its past ("Who Dunnit," "Dodo," "Keep It Dark"). However, by 1983's eponymous follow-up, the hit factory that was Genesis in the mid- to late-1980s was operating full steam ahead, and the angel Gabriel's spectre had all but vanished. Then, there were truly only three. --Bob Michaels Amazon.com essential recording

brainy soul-pop made silly...

This CD does an excellent job showcasing Phil Collins' vocal talent, with its flashy production being less flashy than it would become only 5 years on. However, I just don't often feel compelled to listen to this CD throughought. It's hard to say it's b/c of lack of consistency, with all the songs having the same general vibe and production values, although maybe it's a little TOO consitent? Perhaps it's too much like an American Idol showdown, with "No Reply At All" vs. "Keep It Dark" and "Me And Sarah Jane" vs. "Dodo/Lurker" and so on and so forth...I mean, after all, isn't a producer's job to cut down the unecessary and make the album flow and work like clockwork? Hugh Padgham (sp?) failed miserably on this album, although if you put 1 or more other CDs similar to this one in that respect in a CD changer and hit "shuffle", the songs are definitely not all bad. In fact, they're quite good. Just know that if you don't have a 2+-CD-changer that the $10+ you'll spend on this CD will most likely need multiply by 10, unless you get a great deal on a used one...(btw, cd changers are sure getting harder to find, aren't they? I bought the Sony MC55 a couple months ago and returned it 'cause it was too freakin' bulky...but anyway...I'm outa here. Peace). October 16, 2008

the weakest album they made in the 80's

Abacab is an average album tucked between two masterpieces (Duke and Genesis). I never understood the appeal of this one. The songwriting is pretty weak in several areas. Plus the obvious commercial approach is apparent in the way the album sounds.

The title song is almost unbearable, and overlong to the extreme. The robotic vocals aren't appealing to me in the least. "No Reply At All" has some obnoxious jazzy sounds, and "Dodo/Lurker" is another overlong, unmemorable song with a musical part near the end that makes me feel embarrassed for listening to it.

Only the final three songs are good if you ask me. Luckily Genesis bounced back with a highly enjoyable album after this one. Not to mention you have a bunch of Genesis albums from the 70's that are *all* worth owning, including both the Collins and Peter Gabriel albums.

If this is your first introduction to the band, well, it was a bad one, and if you're looking for a good starting point with the band, get "A Trick of the Tail". A very solid album that one is. April 23, 2008

holds up

I'm a huge fan of older Genesis and not such a big fan of Phil's adult contemporary leanings of the later years...but this album stands as solid as it did back in 1981...maybe even more so. The songs stand up...the hits of course, and even the lesser known songs, like "Dodo", "Who Dunnit", "Keep It Dark", etc. The production is outstanding...clean and confident. The band just delivers on this one, and every song is as good as the next...no clunkers. This may have been the gateway to the Phil dominated Genesis of the 80's, but to me it is when they reached the post-Gabriel Zenith. Great record...25 years later it still sounds great. April 6, 2008

The album that rightfully made Genesis superstars in the US still classic 25 years on

Genesis released their lucky thirteenth album entitled Abacab in September of 1981.
The Abacab album was the band's first to be self-produced and was their collaboration with engineer Hugh Padgham (whom worked with former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel and fellow rockers The Police at that point) whom singer/drummer Phil Collins collaborated with on his US Top 10 Multi-Platinum solo effort Face Value.
Also, Genesis built their own studio The Farm in Surrey, England and Abacab was the first album to be recorded at the band's own studio.
The album Abacab showcased the band writing all but three songs together as a band which was something they had not done since Peter Gabriel left.
The lone solo songwriting credit for keyboardist Tony Banks was the excellent and proggish "Me and Sarah Jane". Also, guitarist and bass player Mike Rutherford had one of his best pieces "Like it or Not". The album also contains Phil's atmospheric Top 40 hit "Man On the Corner" which its lyric theme predated the concept of Phil's solo hit "Another Day in Paradise" by eight years about America's dirty secret, homeless people.
Now for the songs that all three Genesis members wrote together starting with the 7 minute opening Top 40 charting title cut which is an awesome rocker which turns into a killer 3 and a half instrumental jam at song's end. We follow that with the US Top 30 hit "No Reply at All" which featured the Earth Wind and Fire horn section. Other highlights are the British hit "Keep it Dark" which is a silly but great song, the seven and a half minute prog-rocker "Dodo"/"Lurker" medley, the silly "Who Dunnit" and the classic finale "Another Record".
The Abacab album was Genesis' first US Top 10 album and first Platinum seller for the band. To date, it is over the three million copies sold bracket in the US.
I first bought this CD on a whim in August of 1997 when I bought the remastered edition (my very first Genesis album in fact) and it is hands down one of the best efforts of the three piece era efforts.
Highly recommended! November 16, 2007

Finally pop

Luis Mejia (son) - it wasn't going to be too late before Genesis became fully developed into their transition from progressive rock to pop music, as it can be shown in traces left in pasts ...And Then There Were Three..., and Duke, but still, as it marks their definitive transition to an extremely commercial, bastardized pop genre, it represents one of the biggest dissapointments for prog fans. While I'm also a notorious pop fan, this album is not a bad work at all, but the pain and the angriness that runs through my veins every time that I think of this album really makes me change my opinion quickly.

Even though, being as objective as possible, Abacab is truly their greatest pop era album, for the ones who really like their pop phaze, I strongly recommend this album, as it contains not only famous compositions, but still catchy, melodic, enjoyable and moody ones, so leaving aside my pride, Abacab is a really good album, but I can't leave it aside so... Anyway, this was their second album released in the 80's, Duke standing on the first place released in 1980, and, well, at this time even the most pride progressive rock bands such as King Crimson were starting to experiment mildly with the pop, commercial and "radio friendly" style, and already even before, awesome prog band Yes was already detoured in this aspect, if you're a Yes fan who really likes their progressive rock you might recall such a huge dissapointment as Tormato represented. The rest of prog bands were already trying with many different styles (Jethro Tull) or they were already splitted (Van Der Graaf Generator), although Genesis change was more gentle, starting with the already frightening pop inclinnations in ...And Then There Were Three..., they lay low for a while and decided to satisfy with a much more gentle touch of friendly neo progressive rock and slight uncompromising pop touches in Duke.

Anyway, returning to the album, Abacab contains one of the most huge set of songs composed by all three members of Genesis, just with the exception of three songs, so the cohersion here is mildly affected by certain moments. Although being a pop album, now entering in the field of pop and less in the field of prog, there is one song that truly deserves to be acclaimed, and it is the friendly, enjoyable, melodic No Reply At All, wich is certainly a good, fantastic pop, and, as every song that stands as a truly smashing and fierceful pop, its less radio friendly,so its very comfortable. Certain traces of the heavily synthesized but fabulous Duke were still left for people to get used to their new genre into a more comprehensible, not brutal way, and those traces are notorious in such songs as the opening, title track Abacab, it keeps a poppy structure but its well crafted synthesized moods and its stunning melody plus the instrumental showdown at the end of the song keeps a fantastic and delicate touch, but beware, real Genesis fans won't be fooled with these kind of stuff, just as my dad completely refused to more Genesis' albums after listening to this song. Very slight progressive rock details were left in certain turns and twists among the songs, such as those in certain moments of Me And Sarah Jane, the most progressive rock song you'll find in the album, but still its stuck in the middle of two genres so its a litle bit confusing, and the agressive Dodo/Lurker also keep some confusing details of their past progressive rock, although being an uncanny and confusing song when it comes to define its genre, it possesses certain highlights like Lurker showdown and certain vocal surprises from Phil Collins. Oddly enough, the song which I most identified with was Another Record, it is a good song but its lyrics really kept me in a trance, while they describe a poor, unknown, old rock n' roller man who was know dissapointed, and Phil and his bandmates screamed 'someone help him' but the only thing that kept him distracted was listening to some records he asked for again and again, and I think that when they actually wrote this song they didn't comprehend how meaningful this might appear for some of their early fans, at least the impact that brought to me was that I imagined myself, dissapointed for Genesis new genre, walking without hope, and just like the song explains, they actually couldn't help me so the thing that kept me going was listening to their old cds, jaja, it may sound odd but this is truly how I felt after listening to this song. Among their individual compositions, Phil Collins' Man On The Corner keeps his classic mellow, sentimental mood but the song doesn't possess an adequate performance, and Mike Rutherford's Like It Or Not is not a bad song but it reflects a vague emotional sense, plus, as being a Rutherford composition, it isn't quite enjoyable or acclaimed. Finally, the two worst songs in the album are certainly Who Dunnit? and Keep It Dark, Who Dunnit? is certainly an idiotic, foolish, unnecessary, vague and uncomprehensible song, "oohhh, the effects of drugs" was the only thing in which I could thought while listening to it, while Keep It Dark keeps a lot of more potential, its also an awkward, uncanny composition.

Within their performance the only big failure here is now the heavy presence of drum machines, so or Phil Collins got a fingers disease or the lazyness and the years beat him. One of the things which are always present on my mind within this album is once my uncle worked on a British Airways airplane where he saw Phil Collins, so my dad always jokes with him about why he didn't say to Phil " hey Phil, why if you did so many good things with Genesis now you've come to make such idiotic things like that pop you're making?!".

Anyway, Abacab is another early point of turn, in which the remaining Genesis (as in this period I refuse to call them Genesis) turns into a more sophisticated, pop style, while its surely a huge dissapointment in the aspects of their long hoped progressive rock, its also the most comprehensible and adequate album for their pop era lovers, so here there are put two conditions for buying this album, although you remained dissapointed with the prog aspect but also liked their pop, but I hope my review influences you in your buying.

P.S.: if you'd like to see certain of Genesis' late rock features, I recommend We Can't Dance. September 5, 2007

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