Genesis
...and Then There Were Three...

"And Then There Was The Breakdown..." would have been the most suitable title for this LP, released after the departure of the excellent guitarist Steve Hackett. The magnificent castle of notes that enchanted us in the early '70s, which remained perfectly standing after a violent shock like the farewell of Peter Gabriel, did not withstand this latter earthquake, and if it didn't completely fall apart, it remained severely damaged.

Everyone knows the greatness of Peter Gabriel, and I am certainly not going to diminish it, but it is well known that it emerged only after his departure from Genesis, and not immediately (on the fourth album, or the third, depending on taste).
However, if you look at the compositional and instrumental contribution that Peter made to the group, you realize that, apart from the lyrics, it was rather modest. So, as much as saying it seems sacrilegious, Peter Gabriel proved to be a luxury that one could do without, especially having another great voice like Phil Collins at disposal, while the lack of an instrumental pillar like Steve Hackett proved disastrous.
All this is clearly felt when listening to "And Then There Were Three": the honest bassist Mike Rutherford is catapulted to the limelight, grappling with the "lead guitar" parts, and it is as if in an orchestra a random violinist is taken from a row and suddenly placed to play first violin. Yet the companions (and himself), partly due to a lack of ideas, partly to follow popular trends, paved the way for him by composing a series of simple songs, nothing like the imaginative suites of golden times, still present in "Wind And Wuthering".

Here, to recall the ancient glories of Genesis, there are only crumbs, the ruins of the castle: the articulated structure of "The Burning Rope", perhaps the only link to the true Genesis world, certain irregular rhythms of "Down and Out" and little else.
Keeping the ship afloat is the usual Tony Banks, but he does so by using real songs, even if two of them ("Many Too Many" and "Undertow") can easily be called wonderful. In short, melodic inventiveness hasn't gone away, but what's missing is the project: there is no longer that unbridled fantasy that led Genesis to completely disregard the limits of the "song", following only creativity. Moreover, for the first time there is also real dead weight, like the dull rock "Ballad Of Big" and "Scenes From a Night's Dream", and the sickly "Snowbound".

Of course, from a commercial point of view, the conversion to the 4-minute song brought a benefit: not only did this record have excellent sales, but on the radio, a track like "Follow You Follow Me", technically impeccable but with a monstrously banal refrain, became a true earworm, and even the melancholic "Many Too Many" had a decent space. However, the old Genesis enthusiast doesn't care about the chart position and looks at the content: here it is of a not more than decent level.