It takes three

Rip It Up, Issue 13, 1 July 1978, Page 12

It takes three

Genesis And Then There Were Three Charisma No record collection should be without at least one Genesis album. Their music is a yardstick to judge others by, in terms of tune, arrangement and production. Genesis excel in all three departments, especially when it comes to proving that classical-rock music is not just an attempt to camouflage a weak tune with a grandiose arrangement. The strength of Genesis has always lain in their songs, and anyone who failed to understand their earlier effort's has only to listen to “Ripples” or “Trick of The Tail” to change his mind. Genesis have the cumulative talent to transcend all barriers, all of them artificial, and reach out to all music lovers with the sincerity and dedication that are their hallmarks. In these pages I have already extolled the virtues of the live set “Seconds Out”, but the following studio effort is always the proof of the pudding, doubly so for Genesis, since in

the interim they've lost guitarist SJpve Hackett, once a major creative soured^ Have no fears here, for "Three” is admirable evidence that Genesis as a trio are still as viable as ever, and new horizons abound. This album marks the emergence into the limelight of Mike Rutherford as a composer and allows Tony Banks to consolidate his already-proven songwriting ability. Rutherford especially makes his presence felt, with the exquisite "Snowbound”, which Genesis fans are bound to be singing for weeks to come, and the brooding “Deep In The Motherlode”. This album also marks a breakthroughjor Genesis, in that it's produced their first hit single, "Follow You, Follow Me.” Our own noble Murray Cammick says it sounds like Seals and Crofts. Maybe, but if it gets Genesis a wider audience, then well done. Anyway, it’s just about the weakest track on the album. Once again, David Hentschel is behind the control board, and the production here would make even the most inferior stereo sound good. Turn it up loud and let the sound wash over you. Genesis have had their share of troubles, first losing Peter Gabriel and now Hackett, but on this showing their future seems assured. This album is a lesson in survival. Duncan Campbell

Brian Eno Before And After Science Polydor C’mon guys and gals, let’s measure out our lives in shirts like we did last summer, get back to minus in a tiny canoe and separate the torso from the spine. What is there left to do? We could turn to the wall or we could turn to Eno, because the dust is settling and the cows are coming home to roost. In Eno we will find true beauty (’scuse me) but you’ve only got to peer into the back of a radio to get that stuff. The music of a jellyfish chamber ensemble is another kettle entirely and you might just find that on Eno’s newest hot platter called Before And After Science. I want you to buy this record by one of my favourite rock stars because this is the one that folk who don’t think they like Eno might just like. My own tastes run to Lou Reed, Abba, and the Fifty Foot Hose so you can see that I wouldn’t put you crook. B & A Sc. is Eno's smoothest production job yet, it almost sounds like your conventional rock record, almost. Especially on side one wherein lurk such heavy musos ('scuse me) as Phil Collins, Dave Mattacks, Phil Manzanera, and the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters who died in 1948. Nice to see you back on deck Kurt. Some of these gents make it through that little hole and out onto Side Two, bits of which do sound like elevator music at an oyster colony, but the masses have been prepared for that facet of Eno through exposure to Bowie’s music-to-eat-Gothic-cathedrals-by. Nearly every one of those umpteen thousand souls who bought Low and Heroes are searching for Eno even if they don’t know it. Then there’s “Here He Comes”, the brilliant piece of pop that kicks off Side Two and could kick Kate Bush and the Bee Gees into next Saturday Night forever. Yes ... I’m recommending Eno to you and I've never even met him! Then consider warm jets, tiger mountain and another green world. Your tympanum will tell your cochlea that it’s Xmas again. Terence Hogan.

Nick Lowe The Jesus of Cool Radar It can’t be easy being Nick Lowe. When you are the subject of more scurrilous stories than anybody else around concerning your, um, peculiar attitudes towards plagiarism, record production, pop music, alcohol, and general coolness, people wait for your records like piranhas. Those twelve inches of vinyl are the perfect opportunity for somebody to really show you up for the phoney you are. In the case of ‘The Jesus of Cool, they are all going to be disappointed. It’s everything you might have expected and more. Everybody has heard the Bowiesque “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass’ but the album also features thinly-disguised appearances by the Jackson Five, Thin Lizzy, 10cc and Nick Lowe, as well as brief references to others along the way. It also features Lowe's rough and ready approach to the mixing desk, already heard to good effect on records by lan Drury, Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Dr Feelgood and the Damned. This combination of this clearconscienced plundering of pop music's archives and the vigorous playing and production of the record put Lowe at least on the

same footing as his proteges, and in some cases above them. While he cheerfully pinches any idea that is not screwed down, none of his songs amount to parodies or copies of the originals. Where they get really close, as on The Sound of Breaking Glass’, they use the idea, and its connotations, to create a completely new song often by the inclusion of particularly bizarre set of lyrics. The Jesus Of Cool ensures in its own modest way that the music of Lowe and his London contemporaries (people like Parker, Dury Costello and Dave Edmunds) will survive. It is packed with radio songs, and while it may not winkle the Bee Gees out of the top forty, it will be played enough to make it a little easier to be Nick Lowe. Francis Stark