My Top 20 Albums from 1978 No 14

And Then There Were Three 4 ( 1978 )
Down and Out / Undertow / Ballad Of Big / Snowbound / Burning Rope / Deep In The Motherlode / Many Too Many / Scenes From A Night's Dream / Say It's Alright Joe / The Lady Lies / Follow You, Follow Me

Onwards, and ever onwards we go. Steve Hackett had left now, not that you'd notice any real difference in the sound of this album and the previous one in guitar terms, so light on guitars was 'Wind And Wuthering' anyway. Still, 'Down And Out' opens and we're still prog Genesis. Phil sounds more confident though, maybe. He was continuing to grow into his new role within the group. The departure of one more member, leaving just Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Phil himself, was obviously going to place more focus on Phil's contributions to the group. Not that he was leading the artistic direction as of yet, although with a song like 'Follow You, Follow Me' arriving to close the album - and sounding like it's been performed by a different band altogether - Phil was clearing starting to exert himself. Interestingly, 'Follow You, Follow Me' is a song that sounds more Peter Gabriel solo than it does the classic sound of Genesis. Phil was paying attention to what Peter was upto in the studio and on record and brought his observations back into Genesis. Anyway, 'Down And Out' is okay, 'Follow You Follow Me' is okay, a good pop song. The rest of this album is awfully difficult to listen to. Strained vocals, harsh, overbearing synth sounds. Genesis don't quite seem to know what the hell they are doing, post gabriel and now post Hackett.

'And Then There Were Three' lacks any kind of unifying direction, some songs display the 'to come' 80's Genesis, some are locked into progressive mode - but neither direction convinces, both are poor and/or tentative. 'Snowband' is an easy listening ballad before exploding into overly loud synths and Phil's voice sounding very thin as he raises his vocals trying to keep up with it all. Ah, I can't even think of anything real to say about this record, except that it's clear it hardly qualifies as amongst Genesis best work. This album is notable for 'Follow You, Follow Me' only - the sound of Genesis to come, a nice pop song and far more pleasing than the rest of this confused mess.