A finely-wrought reconsideration of Genesis’ debut by Howard Salmon that reframes it not as a false start or leser work, but one that is taking readings to determine how to arrive at a destination. And yet, as Howard notes, it is an album of revelations:

“…you hear the record only in terms of what it lacks—weight, formal daring, sharper rhythmic identity, stronger individual character—you miss the more revealing fact that the album is full of pressures it cannot yet fully express in the form it has been given. The strings, the polished vocal framing, the late-sixties orchestral-pop surfaces, the tidy melodic finish: these are not incidental decorations. They are containment devices. They regulate emotional material that is already trying to exceed them.”