Genesis
Foxtrot

It's sunset. 

An orchestra of violins and winds, screechy and puzzled as if emerging from the celluloid trap of an old black-and-white film, takes flight, flutters in the evening sky like a blind bat, and finally settles on the hills to witness the Event.

It's a signal, at first almost indistinguishable, lost among the sounds of the countryside and the cicadas, then increasingly recognizable and finally deafening; He, so that we could understand his language, used the sounds of drums, bass, and guitar to compose a telegraphic message. A rhythm that originates somewhere near Alpha Centauri, approaches our solar system, our orbit, our atmosphere, our ear, and finally gives us the certainty that the Watcher of the skies has tuned his attention to our little planet.

The spectacle presented before his eyes casts him into despair: earthlings are driven by the same self-destructive instinct that wiped out his race millions of years ago.

No one can interpret his message, or no one pays it any mind; the Watcher of the skies wraps himself again in his black cloak, thinking "I'm sorry, earthlings: I couldn't help my species, and I can't save yours."

Tony Banks' Mellotron accompanies his exit from the scene.

Personally, I consider "Watcher of the Skies", which opens this 1972 album with grandiose organ riffs and whispers and screams from Steve Hackett's guitar, the most beautiful song ever written. If it's true, as they say, that it was composed in Reggio Emilia during concert rehearsals, we Italians can be proud to have been among the first to offer support and inspiration to Genesis.

The group, which with the previous album "Nursery Cryme" had come to terms with the departure of guitarist Anthony Phillips and reached full expressive maturity thanks to the talents of new members Phil Collins and Steve Hackett, with "Foxtrot" embarks on a project of broad scope; besides songs structurally similar to the previous work, like "Get 'Em Out by Friday" and "Can-Utility and the Coastliners", mini-suites where stylistic references to folk, classical, and jazz are now indistinguishable and fully absorbed into a new and original sound identity, we find small gems that highlight the acoustic sounds of the piano ("Time Table", with its crooked intro and romantic finale that rises in tone infinitely, alluding to the passage of time) and the guitar ("Horizons").

The lyrics are always inspired; few others, like Peter Gabriel, can tell a story about real estate speculation ("Get 'Em Out by Friday", where a family is cynically evicted on a Friday) without falling into the political rhetoric fashionable at the time.

The hypnotic arpeggios of Rutherford and Hackett's guitar open what is the most ambitious track of the album and perhaps of their entire career: a long suite where the Apocalypse and the final reckoning between Good and Evil are ironically announced by an angel with the words "Supper's ready." The power and versatility of the sound inventions, and the ability of the lyrics to lightly address themes that would render any other pop song pretentious, make "Supper's Ready" a true film to watch with eyes closed. Frantic 12-string guitar riffs alternate with moments of almost experimental sounds, like the piano movement "How Dare I Be So Beautiful", where the attack of notes is delayed with a delay that transforms it into a sort of deep breath.

After describing the various moments of the battle between angels and demons, Banks' keyboards introduce the finale with the overwhelming crescendo of "Apocalypse in 9/8", a time signature that would challenge many other drummers but not Collins, who proves to have become one of the group's mainstays. In the live version of the solemn finale, Gabriel is lifted above the stage and exits from above, singing "This is the Supper of the Mighty One, Lord of Lords, King of Kings."

How is it possible that all this does not sound cheesy and pretentious? It is only thanks to the magical creative moment the group is going through that even the most challenging themes are made credible and exciting. "Foxtrot" is the first Genesis album to enter the UK sales charts, and the times of crisis and Gabriel's subsequent departure in 1975 are still far off.