Genesis: Nursery Cryme - 1971

 

This was the first Genesis album to feature Phil Collins on drums and Steve Hackett on lead guitar. 

Their prog rock inclinations were really beginning to make themselves known now, as well. As I go on to say in later reviews, Collins was also one hell of a drummer and he proves it on this album. 

The Musical Box is a ten minute, beguiling narrative number that flows over with proggy pretensions, both musically and lyrically. There is a folkiness to it and a vocal harmony structure at times that must have influenced Queen. It is clearly a track that has a lot about it, but it just leaves me a little cold. It is not a track I find myself wanting to return to, although the bit where the guitars and drums really break out just coming up to four minutes is superb - really rousing and showing that Genesis did actually know how to rock. Check out Tony Banks’s Deep Purple-esque organ work too. Hackett’s guitar soloing ain’t half bad either. 

For Absent Friends is a brief, acoustic and very McCartney-esque number that features Phil Collins on vocals for the first time while The Return Of The Giant Hogweed is a solidly rocking cornerstone of the album. It rocks in muscular Deep Purple style and cries out for a more powerful voice than Peter Gabriel’s thin, reedy offering. I love its riffy power, though, and Hackett’s fuzzy guitar near the end is a real joy too. 

Seven Stones sounds very Beatles to me, but again I find Gabriel’s vocal wanting. It definitely improved as he matured. Lyrically, it is somewhat hackneyed - “I heard the old man tell his tale” is such a proggy line too, isn’t it? Nevertheless, the sheer power of the sound near the end of the track is great, I have to say.

Harold The Barrel sounds like one of those quirky songs that The Who used to come up with in the late sixties. It’s a silly song, let’s be honest. Mike Rutherford’s acoustic Harlequin reminds me a lot of something by someone else, but I can’t put my finger on what. Something by CSNY I think. The Fountain Of Salmacis is the album’s last big track and is King Crimson-influenced proggy chugger, enhanced by some captivating cymbal work from Collins. I love the rumbling, bassy bit at nearly four minutes. 

This was a bit of a patchy album, built around three lengthy, creative bedrock tracks that stand tall as classics of their type, even I will admit.