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Following the identity-sealing statement that was Nursery Cryme, Genesis were now intent on capitalising on their momentum. They continued to play every college gig going while writing song suites about godlike entities overseeing our destiny and dressing like a fox on stage. An average life for a mid-level band in the UK in 1972, then.<\/p>\n
They\u2019d fully incorporated the blast of a Mellotron into their sound and Phil Collins jazz leanings were pushing them in a slightly more interesting direction, away from the ponderous prog nonentity that awaited contemporaries like Gentle Giant. What\u2019s more their live sound had become bolstered by the addition of Mike Rutherford\u2019s bass pedals, allowing him to add yet more ringing twelve string into the mix while blasting the front three rows with his feet. Opener \u201cWatcher Of the Skies\u201d, with its tricky time signatures, displays this power to the max.<\/p>\n
What follows is a consolidation of the promise shown on Nursery Cryme. The first big difference is the production, which suddenly brings all that chiming acoustic filigree up close and personal. The songs flow easily and the cod-historical tendency is toned down in favour of science fiction (\u201cWatcher\u2026\u201d), an ill-judged \u2018contemporary issues\u2019 song (\u201cGet \u2018Em Out By Friday\u201d) and biblical allegory (\u201cSupper\u2019s Ready\u201d). You do still get the history-as-moral song with \u201cTimetable\u201d and one more which, for no good reason at all apart from the awful pun contained in the title, is about King Canute: \u201cCan-Utility And The Coastliners\u201d.<\/p>\n
But the really big stuff on Foxtrot resides in their first bona fide masterpiece: The side-long epic, \u201cSupper\u2019s Ready\u201d. These days Peter Gabriel himself probably couldn\u2019t tell you exactly what the whole thing\u2019s about, but it involves more puns, the Book of Revelations, atomic war and flowers. Someone probably has a webpage explaining it all\u2026But never mind, for it\u2019s an exhilarating, if slightly lumpy ride through some of the band\u2019s best writing and playing. The best sections include the multi-voiced romp through insanity of \u201cWillow Farm\u201d and the clever-cloggery of \u201cApocalypse in 9\/8 (co-starring the delicious talents of Gabble Ratchet)\u201d. Guess which time signature that was in\u2026<\/p>\n
It allowed Gabriel to do even more dressing up, making their shows the hottest tickets in town. Unfortunately the album still stalled on the brink of the big league which contained proggers like Yes and Crimson. Genesis just needed one little extra push. And their next album would supply that. But with Foxtrot everyone had begun to take notice.<\/p>\n