In 1981, Genesis released Abacab, which was a rather successful album for them.
It straddled the world of pop music and prog, attempting to satisfy two very distinct audiences.
And did so rather well, considering that the two rarely cross over.
It may have been the fact that it was crafted in the fever grip of New Wave, which provided a kind of bridge between the arty aspirations of conceptual rockers with the shock of a new, eclectic experimentalism that favored a kind of back to basics approach.
So what you got were odd, kinetic beasts like this.
A clear and dominant hook, with just enough weird going on to satisfy freaks of all stripes.
It’s no stretch to think Peter Gabriel could have evolved in Genesis.
Tracks like this and Mama are rather simpatico with his work.
Instead you had two strains that touched on similar sounds, but went their own ways.
Each meeting a level of commercial success that the collective members, with Steve Hackett probably never dreamed of.
