Very, very old album by Genesis

You'll think I've gone mad today, because I'm reviewing an album that is, well, let's say not entirely new. But since I haven't heard it for a while, I thought I'd give it a listen and hear it with new ears. My ears are quite old, but you know what I mean.

The album is Trespass by Genesis, the first prog album they made while they were still working out their style.

Looking For Someone sees the band trying out quite a complex structure, and for the most part it works and hangs together. Gabriel's vocal is a bit - odd - the way he pronounces 'guess' is nothing short of peculiar - but you can hear his growing confidence. John Mayhew's drumming is a bit distracting, especially when the song gets going, but it's not bad, it's just not as good as Phil Collins. There are repeating themes, some lovely instrumental sections, until after the third repeat of the 'Looking For Someone' lyric there's quite a structural disconnect to my ears. But it leads into a satisfying build that is only missing a lyrical element to close out the story. I can see why Gabriel wanted to sing over bits that Tony Banks wanted to be instrumental - the song ends and you're left wondering whether he found anyone.

White Mountain has some quite lovely moments but I've never been able to take a song featuring a wolf  called Fang that steals a crown from the wolf king seriously. And it finishes about three times. I like long songs, but it just feels to me like they're really milking what should be quite short. I was surprised to see it runs to 6 minutes 44 seconds.

Visions Of Angels has three-quarters of a fantastic piano riff before it stutters to an awkward conclusion. This is a great song that could have been edited, and on a later Genesis album this would be a much tighter affair. Again, it's nearly 7 minutes, but a song which essentially has a verse/chorus structure would have benefitted from being significantly shorter. But you can hear Banks' keyboard skills almost developing as the song progresses, and Gabriel's vocal is outstanding. The chord progression is sophisticated and a herald of what is to come.

Stagnation is a sort of proto-Supper's Ready I think. Gabriel's singing is peculiarly tentative. The opening guitar sequence is lovely, and the tom break very well judged. The move into a different guitar section works nicely, but you do wonder where it's going. And then the weird keyboard solo starts. It does sound a bit odd now, I have to say. When the song gets going, it's great, though I can't help being put off once again by the drumming. The reversion to the quiet section works well, and the singing takes off with the killer line 'the ice cold knife has come to decorate the dead'. The following acoustic guitar riff is phenomenal - simple but perfect. The only beef I have with the song is the ending, which sounds tacked on to me. The theme comes out of nowhere. Doesn't quite work. Compare it to the end of Supper's Ready, which the whole song has been preparing you for - much more satisfying.

Dusk still sounds great. It doesn't overreach its relatively simple structure and works well.

The Knife still stands up as an outstanding song. The quiet section, and the screams (who did those screams?), still give me goosebumps even now, more than forty years after I first heard it. Its hard edge is so different from the rest of the album. For me, John Mayhew is most exposed on this song and struggles to match its energy. Gabriel's vocals are absolutely brilliant - you can clearly hear his later style coming through. I never saw Genesis play the Knife live - I first saw them on the Invisible Touch tour (yes, I know!) but apparently they could make it last 19 minutes.

I haven't said much about Mike Rutherford's bass playing or Anthony Phillips' guitaring. Neither stand out for me, except maybe on the Knife where you can hear them really enjoying themselves. It would have been very interesting if Phillips had remained in the band - he's clearly quite a different guitarist to Steve Hackett.

Reasons to listen:

• Are you kidding? Because it's Peter Gabriel era Genesis of course!

Reasons not to listen:

• It's all a bit rough round the edges

Interesting fact of the day: Trespass was commercially successful in Belgium, which helped Genesis survive the early days.

Second interesting fact of the day: The Knife was released as a single. It didn't chart.