Genesis
Foxtrot

THE REVIEW

Every great band worth its salt has at least one album in their discography that is a hidden gem. Generally, these pearls nestle among the works that precede what will shortly become the masterpiece album, the historic album, and the artistic maturity of the band that will bring them worldwide fame...

For example, the Beatles' "Revolver" (1966) album preceding "SGT Pepper" of 1967, or in the case of Pink Floyd, "More" of 1969, not exactly preceding "Dark Side", but possessing in embryo all the elements of that change of direction that would lead them to their masterpiece.

In the case of Genesis, "Foxtrot," the 1972 album, which precedes "Selling England By the Pound" of 1973.

"Foxtrot" is the third studio album by Genesis and provides the measure of what will be the turning point in their music, as the musicians themselves have often stated in various interviews. It could have been their swan song if it weren't for, above all, their tour in Italy; as they themselves have always affirmed, which convinced them that they had a much larger and interested audience for their music than was present in their home country and more than they themselves expected.

It is an album that marks the end of the "adolescence or childhood" of their musical journey, if you will, of Genesis before the mature, aware, and sophisticated "magnum opus" of "Selling England".
A refined but still raw work, it manages to focus on what will be the dominant themes of baroque-progressive, distancing itself from the previous much more instinctive and "wild" albums.
The sound of the initial keyboards of “Watcher Of The Skies” (a track born during rehearsals at an Italian concert) perfectly introduces the atmosphere of the album, where alongside tracks that still echo the previous period (Trespass, Nursery Cryme) such as “Watcher Of The Skies” and “Get’em Out By Friday”, there is room for more immediate and free tracks like “Time Table” and “Can-Utility And The Coastliners” that open new horizons, and whose classic beauty makes them unique pearls, elevating the musical dignity of the entire "pop" music. The second side of the album opens with a piece by Hackett, "Horizons," which, although starting from "Bachian" atmospheres, has over time become one of the most beautiful pieces of modern music ever composed for guitar; just the prelude to the suite "Supper's Ready", a compositional and executive apotheosis that marks the summit of Genesis' art, giving the launch beat for the subsequent "Selling England by the Pound".

What to say, a milestone in modern music.
With "Foxtrot" and "Selling England," Genesis raised the level of "pop music" a few notches, until then considered made of little, by people who combined little technical skill with the fact that they had never studied music and thus considered "inferior" compared to other contemporary genres. Well, many had to reconsider; after all, in hindsight, we are talking about artists of the caliber of Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel and their musical "youth" 

A little-known curiosity regarding the album cover art by Paul Whitehead. You have probably seen this cover hundreds of times, but I bet you never noticed how enthusiastic the fourth horse (the one on the far right, ridden by the hunter with the green face) is to be so close to the fox...:-)