Genesis
Abacab

THE REVIEW

"Abacab", or the point of no return. It is with this work that Banks & co. decide to definitively break with the past, which had still made an appearance in the two previous albums (with excellent results on "Duke"). Aware that progressive rock had already fired its best arrows, at the risk of endlessly repeating themselves and becoming anachronistic, the Genesis focus on innovation by making a precise choice: from now on, their offering will be pop, as original as always and endowed with their innate melodic sense. The choice, it must be noted, was courageous and admirable...what disappoints instead is the compositional quality of the tracks. The title track is not bad as a start, a squared rock song sung with a harsh voice by a Collins who is evidently changing vocal style. The instrumental coda may leave one perplexed, light-years away from the refinements of the past; it will anyway be re-evaluated and reworked for the better in live versions. The following "No reply at all", with marked funky accents, is pleasant in its genre but feels out of place on this record. Vaguely connected to the band's past, but with an updated sound, are "Me and Sarah Jane" (a classic Banksian composition, not among the brightest) and the dramatic and ecological "Dodo", which also boasts the most convincing lyrics. The remaining music is hard to salvage: "Man on the corner" is at least catchy, "Like it or not" and "Another record" are anonymous and colorless. The worst is represented by the obsessive and monotonous "Keep it dark" and "Who dunnit?", perhaps the least successful compositions overall of the three-member formation. Listening to "Abacab" continually reveals a fierce desire to change, to amaze, even at the cost of shocking the listener with previously unthinkable sounds. The lyrics also surprise, deliberately detached and abstract, free of the romanticisms of the past. It is precisely this brazen stance that prevents this album from being completely dismissed, representing, for better or worse, a fundamental stage in the history of Genesis.