Artist: GENESIS
Album: ABACAB REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1981/ 2008
Media type: CD

Abacab is the eleventh studio album by British band Genesis, released in 1981.

The album marks a sharp stylistic jump, begun by the band on its preceding album Duke, away from their progressive rock style of the 1970s and toward a radio-friendly pop music sound. Despite the change, the title track, "No Reply At All", "Keep It Dark" and "Man on the Corner" were all respectable hits as singles and Abacab earned Genesis further fans but lost many others, with the album hitting UK #1 and US #7, selling several million copies worldwide and becoming the band's first Platinum selling album in the US. The album has been reviewed, until today, with mixed opinions both by fans and critics.

Another element of Abacab is drummer Phil Collins's more 80s approach of his drum sound, involving reverberation, noise gates and compression in order to achieve an inordinately loud and authoritative, but completely dated by today's standards, percussive effect. This continued a trend Collins developed along with engineer Hugh Padgham on his solo hit single "In the Air Tonight", as well as the piece "Intruder" from former bandmate Peter Gabriel's third album.

In addition to pounding rock, Abacab incorporates upbeat, accessible music - an increasingly important element in Genesis's style at the time. "No Reply At All" features the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section (as did Collins' solo album Face Value earlier in 1981), and even "Dodo/Lurker," whose adventurous lyrics recall traditional Genesis, features a funky rhythm, propelled by Tony Banks's keyboards.

After years of using outside record producers, Genesis produced Abacab solely by themselves, while limiting further than before the number of solo compositions in favor of the group-written pieces. They also had the expertise of engineer Hugh Padgham, who assisted Collins on Face Value and would continue to work on Genesis and Collins recordings through the end of the decade.

Due to its daring shift in style, Abacab is generally considered one of Genesis' most important releases, and was a springboard for future hit albums Genesis and Invisible Touch. The band had been influenced by the punk/new wave revolution in Britain insofar as what they were now offering fans was a set of minimalist, bare, punchy songs, much more in step with the pop charts than Genesis had ever been before.

All songs by Tony Banks/Phil Collins/Mike Rutherford, except where noted.

TRACKLIST :

"Abacab" – 7:02
"No Reply At All" – 4:40
"Me and Sarah Jane" (Tony Banks) – 6:00
"Keep It Dark" – 4:32

"Dodo/Lurker" – 7:30
"Who Dunnit?" – 3:23
"Man On The Corner" (Phil Collins) – 4:27
"Like It Or Not" (Mike Rutherford) – 4:57
"Another Record" – 4:29

LINE-UP :

Phil Collins – drums, percussion, all vocals
Tony Banks – keyboards,
Mike Rutherford – bass, guitars


Engineered by Hugh Padgham
Cover by Bill Smith
EWF Horns – horns