CoronaVinyl Day 68 (Trio): Genesis by Genesis

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is trio, and there have been many good ones throughout the year -- some of which I've already featured in other categories, like Cream (supergroup) and Motörhead (metal).  There are also a couple trios I'm saving for other categories (including tomorrow's -- stay tuned!).  While I was trying to figure out which album I was going to use for today, I completely forgot that Genesis was a trio for most of their existence, so I decided on Genesis's self-titled 1983 album.  It also gave me a good excuse to drink from my Phil Collins mug this morning.  And yes, I have Phil Collins mug.

By the time this album was recorded, the band -- then consisting of Tony Banks on keyboards, Phil Collins on drums/percussion and vocals, an Mike Rutherford on guitar and bass -- had evolved from the art rock and prog rock they played in the '70s to a more poppy sound (though they still kept some "arty" subject matters), and the results were pretty solid.

The group named the album Genesis because they wrote it collectively, rather that some members writing songs individually.  The album was the third in a string of five consecutive #1 albums in the UK, and the second in a string of four consecutive Top 10 albums in the U.S., where it went to #9 on the Billboard album charts.  It has gone 4x platinum in the U.S. and double platinum in the UK.

More than anything, though, this album established Genesis as a Top 40 radio band in the U.S.  While they had several Top 10 hits in their native UK, they hadn't quite broken through with a big hit in the U.S.  In the five years prior to this album, they had six songs that had reached the Billboard Hot 100, with 1980's "Misunderstanding" being the highest-charting at #14.  However, "That's All" off of this album became their first Top 10 hit in the U.S., going to #6.  Of course, the band built off that with their next album, the massive Invisible Touch from 1986, which featured five Top 5 hits in the U.S. 

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Home By the Sea"
Along with "Second Home By the Sea," this song is the first in a two-part suite that spans eleven minutes to send Side 1.  The story the song tells would make a great sitcom, or at least a limited series.  A burglar breaks into a house and discovers it's haunted.  The ghosts who inhabit the house capture the burglar and force him to listen to their life stories.  They are insistent too, as they repeatedly tell the burglar to "sit down."

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Just a Job To Do"
This is probably my favorite Genesis song.  It's told from the perspective of a hit man who is justifying what he does because "it's just a job to do."  Behind a driving beat and synthesizers, Collins belts out the chilling chorus:  "I got a name / And I got a number / I gotta line on you / I got a name / And I got a number / I'm coming after you."