Abacab

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Abacab is a 1981 studio album by British band Genesis. 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 more 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, with the album hitting UK #1 and US #7, and selling several million copies worldwide.

Another noteworthy element of Abacab is drummer Phil Collins' further refinement of his distinctive drum sound, involving reverberation, noise gates and compression in order to achieve an inordinately loud and authoritative percussive effect. This continued a trend Collins began on his solo hit single "In the Air Tonight", as well as the song "Intruder" from former bandmate Peter Gabriel's third album.

In addition to pounding rock, Abacab shows the addition of upbeat, accessible music into Genesis's style. "No Reply At All" features the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section (as did Collins's 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' keyboards.

After years of using outside record producers, Genesis produced Abacab solely by themselves, while limiting further still the amount of solo compositions in favor of the group-written pieces.

The album takes its name from an early arrangement of the musical parts that make up the title track. Guitarist Mike Rutherford said on the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard (which spotlighted Duke and Abacab in one episode): "There were three bits of music in Abacab, and we referred to them as 'section a', 'section b', and 'section c'... and at different times, they were in different order. We'd start with 'section a' and then have 'section c'... and at one point in time, it spelled Abacab. On the final version, it's not that at all, it's like 'Accaabbaac'."

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. Highly influenced by punk and new-wave, many Genesis fans were shocked by an album that was often perceived as minimalist, bare, and very much a musical companion to the abstract artwork on its cover. Opening with the hard hitting yet pulsing beat of the title song, nothing could be further from the highly orchestrated work of the mid-seventies. That said, the complexity of a song like "Me and Sarah Jane" remained as musically challenging as anything on earlier recordings, even if the sound of the instrumental pallette had expanded since the mid-seventies to encompass an inumerably wider array of synthesizers, a more effects-driven sound to Rutherford's guitars, and the more aggressive sound of Collins' vocals and 'gated' drums. Parts of this album lean toward the nihilistic, with "Dodo's" references to 'big noise, black smoke' as a clear indication that the band was shying away from the incredibly personal introspection of 'Duke', and had returned to a more existential bent. That said, in contrast to more refined, 'poetic' approach to these issues during the late 70's, by "Abacab" there is a more abrasive, punk inflected sensibility to the lyrics, favoring cut-up collage to the baroque stylings of the earlier years. Take for example the following lyric (also from "Dodo"):

Caretaker, horror movie,

Only one eye, only needs one boot,

Sweet lady, she knows she looks good

Vacuum coming for the bright and the brute.

While the album is often cited as a central album in terms of the stylistic shift, many have also noted that it is incredibly inconsistent in terms of overall quality. Stronger material that had been left off of Abacab was soon issued on the 3 X 3 EP, which broke the top ten of the UK singles chart, on the strength of the song "Paperlate."

Track listing

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

"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

Personnel

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

Engineered by Hugh Padgham
Cover by Bill Smith

Additional personnel

EWF Horns - horns

Discography
Genesis
Tony Banks \| Phil Collins \| Peter Gabriel \| Steve Hackett \| Mike Rutherford
Anthony Phillips \| John Mayhew \| John Silver \| Chris Stewart \| Daryl Stuermer \| Ray Wilson
Studio albums and extended plays: From Genesis to Revelation \| Trespass \| Nursery Cryme \| Foxtrot \| Selling England by the Pound \| The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway \| A Trick of the Tail \| Wind & Wuthering \| ...And Then There Were Three... \| Duke \| Abacab \| Genesis \| Invisible Touch \| We Can't Dance \| Calling All Stations \| Spot the Pigeon \| 3 X 3
Live Albums: Genesis Live \| Seconds Out \| Three Sides Live \| ' \| '
Compilations: \| The Platinum Collection
Box sets: Genesis Archive 1967-75 \|

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