This review is of the caliber of the work it examines. Originally, I only heard Nursery Crime after discovering "Lamb" and was blown away at how intelligent it was; which also made me realize how the Midwestern market was filtered. in the early 70's.
I could listen to this gentleman talk Genesis albums all day long..sublime, artistic, magnificent reviews 👍👌Prog Gothic…it all makes absolute sense now! I love this album and despite coming to it later than some of their other more popular prog era albums, more and more it is becoming,quite possibly, my favourite of all Genesis, and that is saying something indeed.
Superb review. This morning I asked a young woman at work named “Genesis” if she liked the band... “There’s a band named ‘Genesis’?” she asked... So, keep helping to keep it alive, Barry!
Gabriel's various stage stories also provided the time necessary for Tony and bandmates to adjust/change/tune their instruments for the next song. Genesis were complicated then, and required various guitar tunings and keyboard settings to suit each song. As for the imagery and lyrics, it was (and is) to me expression from repression. They weren't the first proper schoolboys to develop a wild sense of fantasy to escape the rigidity of public school. I will love this music forever, timeless. Joe
Great review. I really enjoyed it. I love Genesis.... and this is my favorite album. It's just complete. (Close second: Selling England). I'm 49, at this point a middle aged man.... and amazingly this album was out 2 years before I was born. I'd have loved be there to experience these amazing songs live, right after the album was out.
My introduction to Genesis was “Live”. Musical Box really stuck out for me so when I heard the studio version I was hooked. I loved everything about Nursery Cryme barring the muddy sound. Thankfully it sounds a lot better today. I wish Steve Wilson could get his hands on the tape. The album cover is still very striking, it’s one of my all time favourite album covers. I give this album 6 out of 5 stars. It’s good prog.
This is my favourite Genesis album, with Foxtrot and Selling England following closely behind. Fountain of Salmacis is glorious, and the break that is around the 5:30 mark into song is just sublime!
I used to fluctuate between Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot as my favourite Genesis album. N C is Definitely the most pastural and as English as fish and chips. In my opinion no other album by anyone evokes such an otherworldly atmosphere
Like many 70's Genesis fans, I have a special affinity for Nursery Chryme. The addition of Collins and Hackett were huge factors. As usual Barry, you provide stellar description of the subject. I consider your clips to be a reference for all people interested in classic albums. Especially from the prog genre. Thank you.
Well done. I have always thought Trespass had it's sharper edge. The Knife is hard rocking, you like King Crimson? . Fountain would fit well on Trespass. surprised you did not mention a similar fountain motif of the Lamia. The production on Visions of Angles sounds muddy. I think Nursery Crimes is a more consistent album than Foxtrot. I can say I liked all it's tracks, Might wonder if The Day of the Triffids had any influence on Gabriel, Both Hogweeds and Harrold. take a News story approach. Telling of an invasive species or a human interest guy on a ledge story. Harold was melodramatic, theatrical and very sad.. More hits by me here than on Foxtrot,. but Suppers Ready Rules them all.
Love this album not a poor track on it, love the artwork and some of my favourite lines appear here, I quote from Harold The Barrel, Your shirts all dirty there's a man from the BBC. Its a discovery of an album, I never heard of a hermaphrodite, I thought it was some Greek legend bollocks, turns out bollocks are just part of the picture. This album contains some of Genesis best work , and its head and shoulders above what followed after Trick of the tail, you cannot compare this to the dreadfull Abercab, this was Genesis at their best whimsical playfull creative, and Gabriel great voice.
The Steve Hackett solo at the end of Fountain of Salmacis is one of my favourite Hackett solos. And as Phil Collins explained at Knebworth in 78, the song is about someone who is both male and female, at the same time and in the same pair of trousers. It was my introduction to early Genesis , which continued with the “Live” album.
@@graemeyetts3465 Why on earth do you have to bring this up in a wonderful review of this great album? I have several friends that have transitioned, and I am gender neutral myself. The only BS is the rampant anti-trans bigotry.
A very good review, thanks. This is one of the best Genesis albums, imho. It was the product of young men who, on the whole, had had rather sheltered upbringings, and relied on imagination rather than experience. How did a 21 year old write anything as sensitive and empathetic as Absent Friends? What ether did they draw the majesty of the music of Musical Box and Salmacis from? Of the other shorter songs, I think Harold the Barrel is like a Monty Python sketch, especially the "mother's" contributions, and Harlequin, despite what he thinks now, is probably one of the most haunting and beautiful melodies Mike Rutherford has ever written.
Thanks Barry. Without a doubt one o' my favorite Genesis albums...'n my introduction. I was listenin' to the campus radio station where I also had a show 'n heard The Fountain O' Salmacis. So intrigued I called to find out who 'n what had just blown my mind. They became a favorite band immediately. Not long thereafter I went to see them live...only to experience The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway! As good as it gets.
This album and Foxtrot as well as selling England put dreams in my head in my youth in Switzerland while my English was miserable at the time. I learned a lot of English from Genesis because of my eagerness to translate and figure out what these guys were actually singing about. I remember one album when you opened the sleeve opening of two pages, somehow ended with "it's scrambled eggs.." and it goes not further, I do not remember if it was Nursery or Selling, it let me guess until this day. If you are a person who loves lyrics such I do (and I have written many) this poetry is fabulous.
As i recently made my way through the Genesis discography, i immediately fell in love with Trespass. Then with SEbtP and the Lamb. It was only after i went back to rely, really relisten that i got Nursery Cryme. It's fantastic. Love these!!!!
A wonderful review of a great prog album. The album that heralded Genesis as a talented band at the forefront of the British prog scene. BTW I didn't know about the TV documentary that used Genesus music or anything about the origins of Lilywhite Lilith, so many thanks for that.
Watching one of the interview videos - I think it was the one for Foxtrot - Banks gives Hackett the (possibly backhanded?) compliment of how the guitarist provided coloring for the album. I think it may be true that the band's respective instrumental talents were all subsumed in the task of making a joyous "total sound" greater than the whole of parts. (No doubt the principal secret to Foxtrot's popularity.) What I like about Nursery Cryme, particularly Hackett's role in it, is that his parts do sound so novel, and so raw and violent. And you do, on that record, still hear the individual parts for what they are, especially if you listen to the stereo remix. So neat to hear Collins and Hackett both proving themselves as phenomenal players at this point.
Not quite in my top five Genesis albums, but close. Structurally, Nursery Cryme is a bit similar to Yes's Fragile in that it has three big epics with several shorter, individually-written pieces serving as interludes in between them. Of the epics, The Musical Box is the undisputed classic; of the shorter tracks, Harold The Barrel is my favorite.
I think on Trespass / Nursery Cryme they achieved something they never managed again, every single song above a high quality bar (OK I'm cheating a bit and ignoring Harold The Barrel). On subsequent albums they raised the bar on individual songs, but there were always some duds or mediocre songs on the album. As you say, NC reflects a kind of dark side to the Victorian era and in typical prog style you can only fully appreciate this by looking at the album art and reading the little story that accompanies The Musical Box. Even The Fountain of Salmacis, based on Greek Mythology, feels like it is told through the lens of a dusty old book on some Victorian academic’s book shelf. I didn't know until recently that the Giant Hogweed is a real thing and is indeed more potent during sunnier weather. My wife used to organise it being cut back when she worked for the council.
It s more important that I keep listening?! Tss Tss Tss...But seriously. Really enjoyable and informative to listen to you! Keep em coming! I always amaze myself, having over seemingly endless years listened to and read about Genesis, I still want more...
As. Yank, I relished putting this album on in 1982 (Genesis came late but I sought this stuff out during the New Wave), and absorbed the sound. I loved this stuff - Baroque elements and a band that was completely void of anything in the vicinity of greasy twanging guitar licks. Gabriel's voice became a source of solace. Phil Collins probably did some of his most inventive drumming from this album through Trick of the Tail. I live in fly-over country in the Midwestern US, but I have always longed secretly to be a Brit at heart. Prog has become the soundtrack of my life, and this album is certainly a major element there.
You're right about Phil, I think his standout albums _are_ this and TOTT. Because on both albums, he had something to prove. This one, to show he was going to be irreplaceable for the band on his first outing. On TOTT, to show the world _they_ were Genesis, not just Peter. (his work on Dance On A Volcano is a marvel)
When I got into Genesis many moons ago I bought every album up to and including A Trick of the Tail on vinyl. I had to import these albums via a record store. Every album was flawless until I got to Nursery Cryme. The first copy had damage on the tracks. It was some kind of gunk in the tracks which rendered the album unplayable. I returned this first copy and imported another copy. It was the same result. After this, I gave up. To this day I have never owned this album. It is a great album though. A nice review.
Nursery Cryme vies for top position in Genesis albums for me. Maybe because it's the first one I heard. Maybe it's when I really discovered how scary and overwhelming a mellotron can sound. But of their entire catalog, this is the one I tend to revisit the most.
Very hard to be objective for me because I discovered Genesis with the Seconds Out live album of 1976. I would listen to the two records holding the double-sleeve album in my hands visually jumping from one picture of a band member to the other. Nursery Crime is in my top 3 Genesis albums. It built on the strengths of The Knife from the previous album.
Yes, Steve and Pete went to get that from KC in some shady basement they played in. I have a whole Keyboard tower and array but I miss the Mellotron, what a magic instrument and Steve cleary lets us know his love for it in his book.
I always thought the album wos almost heavy metal in sound, certainly in parts, at least heavy metal given the yardstick that contempories like the who and the doors were considered hard rock by some
A lifelong Genesis fan Barry & never a favourite this for me although it is well recorded the short pointless tracks on the album grate after a while.... I just wish Foxtrot was as well recorded instead of the dull production even on the 2007 remaster!
What an album!!!! Pure genius.
The most articulate, insightful and comprehensive review of this album I've heard or read, extremely well done sir.
Glad you enjoyed it
His impeccable articulation is why I come back again and again.
This review is of the caliber of the work it examines. Originally, I only heard Nursery Crime after discovering "Lamb" and was blown away at how intelligent it was; which also made me realize how the Midwestern market was filtered. in the early 70's.
A really magical record with an atmosphere quite unlike any other.
I could listen to this gentleman talk Genesis albums all day long..sublime, artistic, magnificent reviews 👍👌Prog Gothic…it all makes absolute sense now! I love this album and despite coming to it later than some of their other more popular prog era albums, more and more it is becoming,quite possibly, my favourite of all Genesis, and that is saying something indeed.
Superb review. This morning I asked a young woman at work named “Genesis” if she liked the band... “There’s a band named ‘Genesis’?” she asked... So, keep helping to keep it alive, Barry!
The John peel quote was made after Gabriel left after seeing them about 76 when peel had jumped on the punk band wagon,
Always been my favourite Genesis album. So beautiful and haunting.
This and Foxtrot were my introduction to Genesis. Great stuff as always Barry!
Toxic vegetation indeed! This has got to be one of the best reviews of this classic LP ever. Kudos Man and Thank You!
My second favourite album of all time just behind Rubber Soul by the Beatles ❤
Gabriel's various stage stories also provided the time necessary for Tony and bandmates to adjust/change/tune their instruments for the next song. Genesis were complicated then, and required various guitar tunings and keyboard settings to suit each song.
As for the imagery and lyrics, it was (and is) to me expression from repression. They weren't the first proper schoolboys to develop a wild sense of fantasy to escape the rigidity of public school. I will love this music forever, timeless. Joe
Great review. I really enjoyed it. I love Genesis.... and this is my favorite album. It's just complete. (Close second: Selling England). I'm 49, at this point a middle aged man.... and amazingly this album was out 2 years before I was born. I'd have loved be there to experience these amazing songs live, right after the album was out.
It is a pretty dark album save for two songs, “Seven Stones” is the sleeper on this album, sch a great song.
The album sleeve itself is fantastic and distinctive, as are the contents.
My introduction to Genesis was “Live”. Musical Box really stuck out for me so when I heard the studio version I was hooked. I loved everything about Nursery Cryme barring the muddy sound. Thankfully it sounds a lot better today. I wish Steve Wilson could get his hands on the tape. The album cover is still very striking, it’s one of my all time favourite album covers. I give this album 6 out of 5 stars. It’s good prog.
My favorite Genesis album! "The Musical Box" is one of their best ever songs
My understanding was that "For Absent Friends" was both written and performed in its entirety by Collins and Hackett, without any of the others.
This is my favourite Genesis album, with Foxtrot and Selling England following closely behind. Fountain of Salmacis is glorious, and the break that is around the 5:30 mark into song is just sublime!
I used to fluctuate between Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot as my favourite Genesis album. N C is Definitely the most pastural and as English as fish and chips. In my opinion no other album by anyone evokes such an otherworldly atmosphere
Like many 70's Genesis fans, I have a special affinity for Nursery Chryme.
The addition of Collins and Hackett were huge factors. As usual Barry, you provide stellar description of the subject. I consider your clips to be a reference for all people interested in classic albums. Especially from the prog genre. Thank you.
Nursery Cryme is a Masterpiece.....the musical box and the fountain of Salmacis are outstanding
Well done. I have always thought Trespass had it's sharper edge. The Knife is hard rocking, you like King Crimson? . Fountain would fit well on Trespass. surprised you did not mention a similar fountain motif of the Lamia. The production on Visions of Angles sounds muddy. I think Nursery Crimes is a more consistent album than Foxtrot. I can say I liked all it's tracks, Might wonder if The Day of the Triffids had any influence on Gabriel, Both Hogweeds and Harrold. take a News story approach. Telling of an invasive species or a human interest guy on a ledge story. Harold was melodramatic, theatrical and very sad.. More hits by me here than on Foxtrot,. but Suppers Ready Rules them all.
A very enjoyable review of a fantastic album. It helps to keep the legacy of albums such as this alive and I thank you for it.
My first Genesis album and still my favourite.
All killer no filler
Love this album not a poor track on it, love the artwork and some of my favourite lines appear here, I quote from Harold The Barrel, Your shirts all dirty there's a man from the BBC.
Its a discovery of an album, I never heard of a hermaphrodite, I thought it was some Greek legend bollocks, turns out bollocks are just part of the picture.
This album contains some of Genesis best work , and its head and shoulders above what followed after Trick of the tail, you cannot compare this to the dreadfull Abercab, this was Genesis at their best whimsical playfull creative, and Gabriel great voice.
The Steve Hackett solo at the end of Fountain of Salmacis is one of my favourite Hackett solos. And as Phil Collins explained at Knebworth in 78, the song is about someone who is both male and female, at the same time and in the same pair of trousers. It was my introduction to early Genesis , which continued with the “Live” album.
I was at that gig and remember Phils intro explanation of the song.
45 ish years on, we are now mired in Woke Trans BS.😂
@@graemeyetts3465 Why on earth do you have to bring this up in a wonderful review of this great album? I have several friends that have transitioned, and I am gender neutral myself. The only BS is the rampant anti-trans bigotry.
@Tom Johansson Apologies if I offended, I meant no harm and perhaps my comment was poor irony.
@@graemeyetts3465 No worries! Thank you for explaining and apologizing!
A very good review, thanks. This is one of the best Genesis albums, imho. It was the product of young men who, on the whole, had had rather sheltered upbringings, and relied on imagination rather than experience. How did a 21 year old write anything as sensitive and empathetic as Absent Friends? What ether did they draw the majesty of the music of Musical Box and Salmacis from? Of the other shorter songs, I think Harold the Barrel is like a Monty Python sketch, especially the "mother's" contributions, and Harlequin, despite what he thinks now, is probably one of the most haunting and beautiful melodies Mike Rutherford has ever written.
Great review here! Nursery Cryme is one of my favorite Genesis albums (behind SEBtP)
Thanks Barry. Without a doubt one o' my favorite Genesis albums...'n my introduction. I was listenin' to the campus radio station where I also had a show 'n heard The Fountain O' Salmacis. So intrigued I called to find out who 'n what had just blown my mind. They became a favorite band immediately. Not long thereafter I went to see them live...only to experience The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway! As good as it gets.
Harold the Barrel is a great fun song as well that you can picture in your head as it plays !
Great review Barry. A tremendous album.
Thanks Barry for another deep dive. 👍
If you listen to F# by Ant, virtually all the motifs in Musical Box are there already.
This album and Foxtrot as well as selling England put dreams in my head in my youth in Switzerland while my English was miserable at the time. I learned a lot of English from Genesis because of my eagerness to translate and figure out what these guys were actually singing about. I remember one album when you opened the sleeve opening of two pages, somehow ended with "it's scrambled eggs.." and it goes not further, I do not remember if it was Nursery or Selling, it let me guess until this day. If you are a person who loves lyrics such I do (and I have written many) this poetry is fabulous.
However, the Fountain of Salmacis is my big love and it seems Steve's too as he always plays it in his concerts of Genesis revisited.
From trespass to and then there were three, no band has ever came close to the phenomenal music, tones, moods, harmonies ext… the best band of the era
Thanks for this!!! My all time favourite band!!!❤❤❤
As i recently made my way through the Genesis discography, i immediately fell in love with Trespass. Then with SEbtP and the Lamb. It was only after i went back to rely, really relisten that i got Nursery Cryme. It's fantastic. Love these!!!!
A wonderful review of a great prog album. The album that heralded Genesis as a talented band at the forefront of the British prog scene. BTW I didn't know about the TV documentary that used Genesus music or anything about the origins of Lilywhite Lilith, so many thanks for that.
Watching one of the interview videos - I think it was the one for Foxtrot - Banks gives Hackett the (possibly backhanded?) compliment of how the guitarist provided coloring for the album. I think it may be true that the band's respective instrumental talents were all subsumed in the task of making a joyous "total sound" greater than the whole of parts. (No doubt the principal secret to Foxtrot's popularity.) What I like about Nursery Cryme, particularly Hackett's role in it, is that his parts do sound so novel, and so raw and violent. And you do, on that record, still hear the individual parts for what they are, especially if you listen to the stereo remix. So neat to hear Collins and Hackett both proving themselves as phenomenal players at this point.
One note though. The mellotron was purchased in 1970 from KC and was used on the Trespass album for the first time.
Not quite in my top five Genesis albums, but close. Structurally, Nursery Cryme is a bit similar to Yes's Fragile in that it has three big epics with several shorter, individually-written pieces serving as interludes in between them. Of the epics, The Musical Box is the undisputed classic; of the shorter tracks, Harold The Barrel is my favorite.
This is my all-time favorite Genesis album. I think it’s flawless and I wish I would they would’ve kept with this sound.
I think on Trespass / Nursery Cryme they achieved something they never managed again, every single song above a high quality bar (OK I'm cheating a bit and ignoring Harold The Barrel). On subsequent albums they raised the bar on individual songs, but there were always some duds or mediocre songs on the album.
As you say, NC reflects a kind of dark side to the Victorian era and in typical prog style you can only fully appreciate this by looking at the album art and reading the little story that accompanies The Musical Box. Even The Fountain of Salmacis, based on Greek Mythology, feels like it is told through the lens of a dusty old book on some Victorian academic’s book shelf.
I didn't know until recently that the Giant Hogweed is a real thing and is indeed more potent during sunnier weather. My wife used to organise it being cut back when she worked for the council.
There was much to be said for the folkness of Trespass.
I agree with you totally . The album is really beautiful over shadowed by later albums but I love it
Trespass gets better with the passing years. Peter’s performance on Looking for Someone is up there with his best.
It s more important that I keep listening?! Tss Tss Tss...But seriously. Really enjoyable and informative to listen to you! Keep em coming! I always amaze myself, having over seemingly endless years listened to and read about Genesis, I still want more...
Absolute classic. I play this more than any other Genesis album......The Lamb? My arse.........:)
As. Yank, I relished putting this album on in 1982 (Genesis came late but I sought this stuff out during the New Wave), and absorbed the sound. I loved this stuff - Baroque elements and a band that was completely void of anything in the vicinity of greasy twanging guitar licks. Gabriel's voice became a source of solace. Phil Collins probably did some of his most inventive drumming from this album through Trick of the Tail. I live in fly-over country in the Midwestern US, but I have always longed secretly to be a Brit at heart. Prog has become the soundtrack of my life, and this album is certainly a major element there.
You're right about Phil, I think his standout albums _are_ this and TOTT. Because on both albums, he had something to prove. This one, to show he was going to be irreplaceable for the band on his first outing. On TOTT, to show the world _they_ were Genesis, not just Peter. (his work on Dance On A Volcano is a marvel)
I wish I could speak like you. Excellent review. Right on target. Thanks again!
A favourite for sure.
When I got into Genesis many moons ago I bought every album up to and including A Trick of the Tail on vinyl. I had to import these albums via a record store. Every album was flawless until I got to Nursery Cryme. The first copy had damage on the tracks. It was some kind of gunk in the tracks which rendered the album unplayable. I returned this first copy and imported another copy. It was the same result. After this, I gave up. To this day I have never owned this album. It is a great album though. A nice review.
Great review
Agreed re: Seven Stones! It has one of the most powerful mellotron solos of all time (4:00 mark).
Nursery Cryme vies for top position in Genesis albums for me. Maybe because it's the first one I heard. Maybe it's when I really discovered how scary and overwhelming a mellotron can sound. But of their entire catalog, this is the one I tend to revisit the most.
Love the album! Great review!
Great review as always.
Great review and presentation, though I don't hear Crosby, Stills and Nash anywhere on 'Trespass'.
The remastering in the 2000s really brought this one and Foxtrot to life.
Not just remastering. They were remixed from scratch, as were all the Genesis albums.
Very hard to be objective for me because I discovered Genesis with the Seconds Out live album of 1976. I would listen to the two records holding the double-sleeve album in my hands visually jumping from one picture of a band member to the other. Nursery Crime is in my top 3 Genesis albums. It built on the strengths of The Knife from the previous album.
Excellent review
Yes, Steve and Pete went to get that from KC in some shady basement they played in. I have a whole Keyboard tower and array but I miss the Mellotron, what a magic instrument and Steve cleary lets us know his love for it in his book.
For me, the 2nd best Genesis album, topped only by Trick of the Tail
The Musical Box is seriously creepy. In a good way. A fine album.
My Genesis holy trinity. Nursery Cryme Foxtrot Selling England.
PG is absent from Absent Friends? I do think he sings in the chorus....
I always thought the album wos almost heavy metal in sound, certainly in parts, at least heavy metal given the yardstick that contempories like the who and the doors were considered hard rock by some
A lifelong Genesis fan Barry & never a favourite this for me although it is well recorded the short pointless tracks on the album grate after a while.... I just wish Foxtrot was as well recorded instead of the dull production even on the 2007 remaster!
Hahahaha