The Ten Most Underrated Genesis Songs

So, after last week's Worst of Genesis list – which stirred up some nice controversies among the ever-squabbling Genesis fans – I thought of doing a best of list to go along with it. But I realized I probably have the same favourite songs as everybody else: The Musical Box, Firth of Fifth, Supper's Ready, Entangled, One For The Vine, The Cinema Show… You know the ones.

Maybe it would be more interesting to make a list of songs that are less obvious. Songs that are, for whatever reson, not often discussed by fans. Songs that may have been dismissed by the band or the fans. Songs that my have gotten overshadowed by the more well-known ones. Songs that weren't even on the main albums, or were rarely or never played live. Songs that are, nevertheless, worth our time.

There's many factors that can make a song count as “underrated”, and who knows, maybe you don't think of any of these tracks as “underrated” at all. But here's some songs that are not often thought of as the band's best or most famous, but that I still really like.

As always, feel free to have your own opinion, but let's keep things civil.


10 The Light Dies Down on Broadway

This song is rarely mentioned but is an essential part of the Lamb album. Musically, it ties the whole thing together as a reprise of, not only the title song, but several other album themes as well. Lyrically, it's probably the most straightforward track on the whole album (it's the only one not written by Peter): our hero must choose between finally returning home or saving his brother. For a truly good man, it's not a hard decision: of course he's not going home. Of course he's coming to John's rescue. Of course he's going to confront himself (literally, as it turns out). What I like about it is how melancholically resigned the music seems to the inevitabilty of it. I understand there's little reason to play it as a standalone track, but in the context of the album, it kills.

9 Uncertain Weather

When people listen to Calling All Stations (which nobody ever does) they often single out “The Dividing Line” as their favourite song, and I'm definitely not going to argue. But another song I really like that gets barely any love is “Uncertain Weather”, which is a lovely heavy pop song with beautiful dynamics between verses and coruses and some simple but effective Banks chord changes. I'm also pretty sure that it's one of Ray Wilson's better vocal deliveries. On the downside, the lyrics aren't great… but they aren't great anywhere on this album.

8 The Battle of Epping Forest

Oft-maligned as the weakest track on the Selling England album, not least by the band themselves (at least, everyone not named Peter Gabriel), “Epping”'s main failing is that it's too clever for its own good. Peter clearly had lots of ideas, most of them funny, and just threw them all at the wall. Combined with the busy music, this is an exuberant, ovestuffed and sometimes exhausting track. It's still an incredibly accomplished piece of music from a band at the very top of their game, and it does give some lightness and some very British humour to this very British album.

7 Dreaming While You Sleep

In sharp contrast to the previous song, the last couple of Genesis albums were all about songs that could breathe. They were all about four chord songs, droning sounds and drum machines. While this formula could easily become stale – especially on We Can't Dance – there were times were the band could make it work wonderfully. “Mama” springs to mind, but this much lesser-known track is just as effective at setting a dark, oppressive mood and building up the tension, which is resolved when the thundering drums come in. Genesis actually played this live a few times, though it never achieved classic status. Take it out of the context of the We Can't Dance album – which plods along like nobody's business – and it reveals itself to be a powerful, atmospheric, haunting piece.

6 You Might Recall

Genesis had the best B-sides. Often, their B-sides were better than some of their A-sides. It's quite an embarassment of riches. This song may be too richly composed and orchestrated to have deserved a place on the minimalist Abacab album. We can only guess why, but at least the song is readily available to listen to these days. It's one of the trio's most exciting pop songs, and it, anachronistically, has a bit of an early Marillion vibe to it.

5 Heathaze

Duke is probably the Genesis album that divides opinion the most. Some fans think it's Genesis last masterpiece, some think it's their first (or even second) dud. I think it's wonderful, and while most of the attention will inevitably go to the songs that make up the “Duke-suite” there are some stunning solo pieces on it as well. One can hear at first listen that it's a Banks song: lots of intricate chord changes and lyrical melody lines, lyrics that only a singer of the calibre of Phil Collins could make work. But he does, and this song is beautiful. Another song that might have grown into a crowd pleaser if Genesis had ever chose to play it live. They didn't, and Heathaze remains an obscure gem.

4 White Mountain

Anthony Philips was a crucial figure in Genesis history and is still very much part of the extended Genesis family. While, even on the Trespass album, it was already becoming clear just how dominant Tony Banks' role would become, Philips gets some of his best moments on his last Genesis album. While his amazing electric guitar work in “The Knife” shows he's not to be dismissed as a rocker, his true qualities are apparent in this beautiful, Kipling-inspired folk song that can unexpectedly bite like a wolf when it needs to. Even its surprise revival for the Trick of the Tail tour couldn't save this great track from relative obscurity and a life in the shadow of “The Knife” and “Stagnation”.

3 Man Of Our Times

Those in the know often speak in hushed tones of a song from Duke that got buried between the big prog set-pieces and the international pop hits. A song that was neither pop nor prog, but a chimaera that was both and neither, a huge rocker with a relentless drive and a majestic chorus that would have sounded great live. Instead, it was never played and is rarely talked about. It may be the best thing Mike Rutherford ever wrote.

2 Twilight Alehouse

I'm so happy the 2007 remasters made the B-sides readily available. Otherwise, I might have missed out on this, an old-school Genesis classic that somehow never made it onto any of their albums. It was a staple of their early shows but got buried and forgotten along the way. There is some inherent hilarity to the idea of these still very green public schoolboys writing a morbid hard-drinking party song, but I'll be darned it it doesn't sound absolutely awesome. It may not have the intricate depth and complexity of some of the other tracks from this period, but it's a fantastic prog rock song. It's not number one, because those who know it tend to rate it higly.

1 Do The Neurotic

It's a sign of just how much Genesis' priorities had shifted that the best song by far from the Invisible Touch sessions isn't on Invisible Touch. Here's a track that might have elevated that album to at least the status of a few of its predecessors. It's an instrumental blowout in the tradition of Los Endos, Duke's Travels and In That Quiet Earth, and while it might not quite be in that league as it lacks a true climax, it's still one of the most enjoyable seven minutes of music that these fellows produced as a three-piece. It's proof that, even with all the drum computers, the different synths and the emphasis on rythm rather than melody, pop-era Genesis was still made up of three unparalelled musical behemoths that were perhaps overqualified to be making the kind of music they were making. Catchy as heck, too.

And there's my list. Be sure to let me know if you've got your own favourite underrated Genesis classics. Of course, the entirity of Genesis' 70's output is underrated by the media in a way, but those are the songs the fans have known and loved for ages and that the current wave of interest in progressive music has, by and large, vindicated. 

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