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Rating: "A Curious Feeling" is Tony Banks' first solo work, created between "....And Then There Were Three" and "Duke". What immediately strikes you on first listen is the predictability of the music that good Tony creates. I'm not saying it's an uninspired or lackluster album, it's just that Banks produces what a Genesis fan expects from him, always impeccable and baroque sounds combined with his exquisite taste in weaving engaging and complete melodies worthy of a great composer.
It seems then that Tony, aware of the shift he wants to impart to the group's music, decides to gift his fans one last time with the good old sounds of the past, as it is indeed Banks who is the main architect of Genesis's abrupt shift to POP.
The work is almost exclusively put together by Tony, who handles all the instruments except for the drums, which are left to Chester Thompson, and the vocals, which are handled by Kim Beacon.
The best parts of the work are undoubtedly the instrumentals; the opening is a variation on the theme of "Undertown" for keyboards and piano, very beautiful although unfortunately too short, whereas "Forever Morning", with a grand use of resounding synthesizers in the song’s prelude, proceeds nicely and pleasantly and already hints at something that will be heard in the instrumentals of "Duke". The same goes for "The Waters Of Lethe", with a piano opening upon which keyboards are added, giving a twist to the melody that shifts from melancholic to epic before fading again – very beautiful, no doubt about it.
Things change with the songs, though; I must say that Tony's keyboards dominate all the compositions, but collectively they don't offer much emotion. The absence of Collins on vocals is strongly felt, and the reliance on the 12-string guitar seems to clash too much with the times (1979). "The Lie" draws its melody directly from the songs of "...And Then.", then even adopting the bouncy rhythm of "A Trick of The Tail", the same goes for "A Curious Feeling", a nice little song, not exceptional, that seems to come straight from Genesis's 1978 work; the use of keyboards is reminiscent of "The Lady Lies" while its catchiness heralds the simpler things of "Duke". Worth noting are the last songs, "For A While" and "In The Dark", perhaps the most successful.
In the end, one could speak of a pleasant work but now completely out of context; Prog has faded and fortunately, Tony has realized this, it's a pity that the path he will choose to follow with Genesis will prove too disappointing for the fans.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 After the Lie (04:53)
For a while I could not lose this childhood spectre,
I felt others saw it too.
Now I notice a change in the way that people look at me,
And how those people look to me.
I see they're not so clever, I like them better for it too.
And one still more.
For now I see more clearly
Many things that passed me by.
Like Paul the visionary,
I see things in a different light.
For now I know what course to take.
Now at last I find a meaning in scenes of life
That made no sense to me before.
And the complicated structures of scientific knowledge
Once just mad, they seem so simple now.
And one I've known since childhood, she has new meaning for me too
These things are good.
For now I see more clearly
Many things that passed me by.
Like Paul the visionary,
I see things in a different light.
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