(Review from progarchives.com)

With this album, Genesis pulled in the reins and reverted in part to the style their traditional fan base expected.

“Home by the sea” ranks as one of their best, and most progressive tracks, with superb keyboards in particular from Tony Banks. Nominally two separate tracks, the second part being “Second home by the sea”, it in reality a 10 minute track which ranks alongside the band’s better known classics.

The opening track, “Mama” has a menacing feel, a bit like a darker version Phil Collins’ first solo track “In the air tonight”. While the track was commercial enough to become a major hit single for the band, it retains sufficient credibility to stand alongside other Genesis singles such as “I know what I like”, and “Follow you follow me”.

Another nice one is “Silver rainbow”. While it has a fairly lightweight feel to it, the structure is slightly more complex than the pop songs Genesis had moved towards, with some excellent keyboard work around the choruses.

Since the band had taken to crediting the whole group (all three of them) for songwriting, it’s hard to know what exactly Mike Rutherford contributes to the final product. His guitar work is muted on the album (as is Phil Collins’ drumming to some extent), with the vocals and Banks’ keyboards driving most of the music. This does give Genesis a gauzier texture than “Abacab”, returning to the “humid” sound of the band’s first two albums as a trio. The difference here is how clean and precise the music is, which costs the album some humanity while placing it on the cutting edge of production value for its time.

If any late-period Genesis album is going to win over converts from the band’s “classic” period, this is the one to do it.

Line-up:
- Tony Banks / keyboards, backing vocals
- Phil Collins / drums, percussion, lead vocals
- Mike Rutherford / lead guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals

Track List:
01. Mama (7:25)
02. That’s All (4:23)
03. Home By The Sea (4:52)
04. Second Home By The Sea (6:20)
05. Illegal Alien (5:13)
06. Taking It All Too Hard (3:55)
07. Just A Job To Do (4:45)
08. Silver Rainbow (4:28)
09. It’s Gonna Get Better (6:25)

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