Genesis - Wind And Wuthering
1976, Atlantic
1. Eleventh Ear of Mar
2. One For the Vine
3. Your Own Special Way
4. Wot Gorilla?
5. All in a Mouse's Night
6. Blood on the Rooftops
7. Unquiet Slumber for the Sleepers...
8. ...In That Quiet Earth
9. Afterglow
Wind & Wuthering continues in much
the same vein as Trick of the Tail in
that it’s not so much about the concepts as it is the music. In fact, Wind & Wuthering could have been
named Let the Music Do the Talking as
the music really takes center stage on this album. There are three
instrumentals and many songs have extended musical interludes. Not that that’s
really unusual with Genesis, but here it seems like they were really trying to
put the focus on the music. The vibe is laid back like the last album with the
boys once again seeming to say, “Hey, we’re just here to play some songs.”
I’ve gone on
at length in this series about Phil Collins’ drumming. I won’t take any of that
back because it’s all true. However, it was this album that I noticed Mike
Rutherford’s stunning bass licks – specifically on the opening track, “Eleventh
Earl of Mar.” The bass seems to take front and center here and it’s all over
the place…in a good way. It makes me want to go back to all the previous albums
and pay more attention to what was going on. Also of note is Steven Hackett’s
guitar. This is particularly evident on “Blood on the Rooftops” which starts
with an absolutely beautiful and evocative classical guitar passage. Apparently,
Hackett was frustrated while recording this album because he felt bits he had
written were being rejected in favor of Tony Banks’ material. Truth be told I
could have used some more Hackett here because acoustic classical guitar is
like Reese Cups – you can never have too much.
“Your Own
Special Way” serves as the lone single for this album. It shows that the band
wasn’t above courting mainstream fame even way before Duke. However, while I’m not wild about this song, there’s enough
to appreciate and it’s not quite so sappy that you want to stick a screwdriver
in your ear. They wouldn’t get to that for quite a few albums.
One of the
highlights is the three-song cycle that concludes the album. “Unquiet Slumber
For Sleepers…”, “…In That Quiet Earth,” and “Afterglow” probably started life
as one single song as they all fit together quite nicely. The first two
sections are completely instrumental with “Afterglow” being sort of a vocal
postlude to the main event. It’s not quite as epic as something like “Supper’s
Ready” but then again, it doesn’t need to be. It just carries that quiet
certainty the rest of the album has.
All in all Wind & Wuthering is a solid
continuation of the work the band began on Trick
of the Tail. I didn’t quite fall
in love with it like Trick but it
remained enjoyable throughout.
Final Score:
4 out of 5
Useless
Fact: Wuthering Heights served as
inspiration for both the album title and the final three tracks of the album.
