Genesis’ fourth studio album, Foxtrot, mostly follows the general style of the band’s previous album Nursery Cryme. Foxtrot continues to hone the band’s very distinctive vision of symphonic prog, combining pastoral moments of beauty with accomplished ensemble playing and slightly odd, often humorous, details.
The album’s opening ”Watcher Of The Skies” starts with an iconic Mellotron intro (the contraption was bought from King Crimson, who still had two of the pieces left after the sale) and then kicks off in earnest with rhythm section Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins chiming in with their rather intricate playing (the tricky arrangement was inspired by a Yes show the band saw, according to Collins). Collins has always been Genesis’ most skilled instrumentalist, but Rutherford really shines on Foxtrot too. His bass playing throughout the album is really tasty sounding and most importantly he and Collins play fabulously together.
”Timetable”, which follows ”Watcher Of The Skies”, is a somewhat disjointed, romantically and nostalgically tranquil song, dreaming of more chivalrous times. It’s not bad music by any means, and on many other Genesis albums it might show itself in a better light, but in this company it is helplessly relegated to the role of a pleasant filler.
”Get ’em Out By Friday” puts the album back on track in earnest. It’s a nicely rocking piece at times, but also a multi-faceted mini-epic with a lot of different phases (the song is ”only” a little over 8 minutes long).
The lyrics are a fun mix of sci-fi and social criticism, and vocalist Peter Gabriel changes his vocal style on the fly depending on which character in the story he is interpreting. Gabriel also does a great job on the album. His original, somewhat immature, rough voice with a hint of soul, which is quite unusual for prog, is extremely charismatic and fascinating to listen to. While avoiding being as alienatingly strange as, say, the voices of contemporaries Peter Hammill (Van der Graaf Generator) or Roger Chapman (Family) can be at their most extreme. It is no wonder that numerous neo-prog vocalists have taken him as a role model (of course, Gabriel’s theatricality on live stages also contributed to this). It is Peter Gabriel’s vocals that put several of the songs on the album in the classic category with their originality. Not to underestimate the great work of the main composer Tony Banks on the music of the album. From: https://pienemmatpurot.com/2024/02/29/review-genesis-foxtrot-1972/
