Nursery Cryme - Genesis

As a teen I aimed to work my way back through the history of progressive rock group Genesis by buying up every one of their many albums from the Phil Collins era way back to those produced when quirky Peter Gabriel was on vocals. I remember browsing through the CD's in the store and seeing this album jump out at me. What struck me most then was the illustration on the CD booklet. I'd later discover it was a painted design based on the lyrics of the songs on the album by artist Paul Whitehead, a man who'd been responsible for a couple of other iconic record sleeve designs for the group. The picture shows a strange little girl of olden times holding a croquet mallet above ...  Read the complete review

This album, released in 1971, was Genesis' 3rd studio release. The band had gone through big changes since their previous album (Trespass). Their drummer John Mayhew had been more or less sacked (well he was pretty rubbish) and replaced just about immediately by the former child actor Phil Collins. Their lead guitarist and one of their main creative influences Ant Phillips had become crippled by chronic stage-fright and had been forced to leave the band. Despite auditioning several guitarists and giving Mick Barnard a brief trial run, they had been unsuccessfull in replacing him, with Tony Banks being forced to play guitar solos on a fuzz-toned electric ...  Read the complete review

It's cool to hate Genesis, everyone knows it. In the same way that no one will ever admit to liking Paul Daniels as a child, very few people will actually come clean and say that, yes, they've listened to a Genesis record and, shock horror, enjoyed it. Criticism generally revolves around the influence Phil Collins has had on the sound of the band, producing hits like ‘Turn it on again’, ‘Invisible touch’ and ‘I can’t dance’. Genesis are more often than not dumped unceremoniously into the ‘crap keyboard’ category of musical sin and forgotten about. Whether you agree or not, that is the general ...  Read the complete review