Today sees the 40th anniversary of the release of Genesis’ self-titled album…
GENESIS
UK Release: 3 October 1983. LP. Charisma/Virgin. GEN LP1.
Album Score: 79%
Mike Rutherford – guitars, bass, backing vocals
Phil Collins – drums, vocals, percussion
Tony Banks – keyboards, backing vocals
Recorded and Mixed at The Farm, Chiddingfold, Surrey, May to August 1983.
Producer: Genesis with Hugh Padgham
Engineer: Hugh Padgham
Technical Assistance: Geoff Callingham
TRACKS
Mama (6:52) *****
That’s All (4:25) ****
Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea (11:14) *****
Illegal Alien (5:17) ***
Taking It All Too Hard (3:58) ***
Just a Job to Do (4:47) ***
Silver Rainbow (4:31) ****
It’s Gonna Get Better (5:14) ***
Upon its release on 3 October 1983, Genesis would confirm the band’s increasing popularity by charting well on both sides of the Atlantic – it would be the band’s third consecutive #1 in the UK, 9 in the US. It featured a photographic album cover by Bill Smith of a collection of toy shapes that lacked any real inspiration and the band has never been keen on it.
![[IMG]](https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/thearchive/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Press-29.jpg)
Being the first album entirely written from scratch and then recorded simultaneously in the studio, it is a hit-and-miss affair. It contains some truly inspired work in ‘Mama’ and ‘Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea’, along with some quality pop material. The LP Side One is about as near perfect as the band would get, but the quirkier tracks on Side Two were less successful, making for an uneven sequence. The band would acknowledge this themselves in many subsequent interviews. Banks recalled, “When I listen to the Genesis album, I really love the first side. ‘Mama’, ‘That’s All’ and ‘Home by the Sea’ are my favourite tracks. The second side is less exciting, but there are some nice moments.”[1] Rutherford concurred adding, “Side 1 is great…Side 2 hasn’t really lasted. They’ve all fallen by the wayside.”[2]
That said most of the other songs did contain some memorable moments. ‘Just a Job to Do’ and ‘Illegal Alien’ contained excellent bridge sections. ‘That’s All’ was a lovely Beatle-esque/Country tune, which connected with the record-buying public. ‘Taking it All Too Hard’ was a finely crafted ballad suggesting things to come and mirroring Collins’ solo work. ‘Silver Rainbow’ has grown in favour over the years and remains a charming song. ‘It’s Gonna Get Better’ may lack enough distinction to be an album closer but has its uplifting moments despite being a little too ponderous in the verses.
The music press, as was becoming the custom, greeted the album with mixed reviews. Hugh Fielder in Sounds was largely positive and opened his review by saying, “Whatever else you want to accuse Genesis of, you certainly can’t say they’re stuck in a rut anymore. Their last three albums have wrung more changes than many younger and supposedly fresher groups have managed in half a dozen.”[3] J.D. Considine, writing for Rolling Stone felt, “Genesis seems little more than an attempt to be all things to all fans.”[4] In his retrospective review for All Music Guide, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted, “It has a little bit too much of everything — too much pop, too much art, too much silliness — so it doesn’t pull together, but if taken individually, most of these moments are very strong, testaments to the increasing confidence and pop power of the trio, even if it’s not quite what long-time fans might care to hear.”[5]
By this point, Phil Collins’ increasing solo success, whilst raising the profile of the band, threatened to overshadow the contribution of Banks and Rutherford. But, as with Abacab, this was a truly group collaboration and the first to be wholly conceived in the studio by the trio as a writing team, an approach they would perfect with their next album. In retrospect, therefore, Genesis can be seen as a further move toward the crafted pop-rock approach they would perfect on Invisible Touch and is best remembered for one of the most blisteringly atmospheric rock songs ever recorded in ‘Mama’.
The band would tour the album extensively across the USA and Canada between 6 November 1983 and 20 February 1984, before returning to the UK for five dates at Birmingham’s NEC Arena at the end of February.
Text extracts are taken from my book The Songs of Genesis: A Complete Guide to the Studio Recordings (McFarland & Co., 2020).
SOURCES
[1] Metal Hammer Genesis Special, 1987.
[2] Radio interview with Genesis. In the Studio with Redbeard, 1987.
[3] Fielder, Hugh. ‘Mama from heaven’. Sounds, 8(?) October 1983.
[4] Considine, J.D. Genesis album review. Rolling Stone, Issue #419, 1983.
[5] Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Genesis album review. All Music Guide. Retrieved 1 March 2019. https://www.allmusic.com/album/genesis-mw0000650186,