{|Anthony Phillips|}' first post-{|Genesis|} solo album was an extension of the pseudo-medieval folk elements found on {|Trespass|}, the last of his {|Genesis|} albums. Much of this recording sounds like a lost {|Genesis|} album, understandable since... Read more

{|Anthony Phillips|}' first post-{|Genesis|} solo album was an extension of the pseudo-medieval folk elements found on {|Trespass|}, the last of his {|Genesis|} albums. Much of this recording sounds like a lost {|Genesis|} album, understandable since {|Phil Collins|} does a lot of the singing, and {|Michael Rutherford|} is present on guitar, bass, and keyboards, and also shares composer credits with him on major parts of this album. Portions of the material here, in fact, seem to have been derived from pieces they composed together in {|Genesis|}' early days that proved unsuitable for performance on-stage. Thus, {|The Geese & the Ghost|} comes off as a sort of throwback, picking up stylistically where {|Trespass|} or {|Nursery Cryme|} (check out the second part of the title track) left off nearly six years earlier. Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times can still hold the patient listener's attention, as it moves from bold synthesizer-generated fanfares to intimate classical guitar passages into soaring movements for electric guitar, flute, and oboe no less (there are three flutists here, plus one violinist, two cellists, and a pair of oboists, {|Bob Phillips|} and {|Laza Momulovich|}, who often get placed very prominently in the mix, probably a first on a rock album) -- but these movements would work better if they weren't quite so repetitive. The 15-minute two-part title track is hopeless -- gorgeous, luscious, languid, and utterly pointless in terms of presenting ideas of any worth or resolving them in any serious way; this is the sort of material that first-year composition students turn in as exercises, but only in the fading glow of the prog rock boom would it see the light of day on a commercial release. It's very arty in an early-'70s manner, midway between early {|Genesis|} and {|Amazing Blondel|} (note that neither of those groups still existed in their progressive rock incarnations in 1977), without the vibrancy that the former could generate or the impressive musical language or vocalizing of the latter. What {|Phillips|} failed to recognize, or couldn't emulate, was the fact that {|Genesis|}, {|Yes|}, {|King Crimson|}, and other bigger-than-footnote prog rock outfits always made sure their music was exciting, as well as pretty and complex. Still, it is pretty, and the CD reissue (which is devoid of instrumental credits) has a demo, Master of Time, as a bonus. That song, a fey mix of sci-fi and faux-medieval sensibilities, never made the final cut of the album, and the demo runs two minutes too long for its own good, but it is sung by {|Phillips|} solo (he doesn't have much of a voice, hardly an octave range to judge from this) in a passionate manner, and is played -- on acoustic and electric guitars, with piano and no classical musicians added -- with some effort at excitement and vibrancy. [{|Esoteric Recordings|} released a three-disc remastered Definitive Edition of {|The Geese & the Ghost|} in 2015, including a bonus CD of demos and early versions of the album's tracks and both sides of an unreleased 1973 single with {|Collins|} on vocals, as well as a 5.1 Surround Sound mix of the album on DVD. The discs were packaged in a clamshell box with an illustrated booklet.] ~ Bruce Eder Less