Warmly glowing and rich on tales. Those seventies keyboardish sounds work greatly on me. Makes me feel comfortable.

I have no idea what this is doing 500+ places below the lesser known A Trick of the Tail.

This is the "proper" genesis of Genesis. The first two albums were a group of musicians finding their way. On Nursery Cryme, we find a band that has developed an identity and is starting to flex its muscles. The additions of Phil Collins and Steve Hackett brought much-needed energy and power into the band. What we see here is a band that was nearly perfectly balanced between light and heavy; songs like Seven Stones were melodic and soft, complementing goofy hard-hitters like Hogweed and Harold the Barrel. The lead-off track is also the centerpiece; it embraces and fuses the dynamics of the album and is a Genesis staple. The Return of the Giant Hogweed has one of the best outros in prog, driven primarily by Collins and Banks.

nursery cryme was the first very good genesis album. The prior two albums were not as good -- 1969 debut from genesis to revelation was carved in a generic 60s-music template mold and follow-up trespass didn't yet carve out a unique identity for genesis yet (although sporting one of their better songs, "the knife") -- and will not be covered in following, previous-year music posts. nursery cryme was also the first album to show off the talents of phil collins and steve hackett. Highlights are "the musical box", "the return of the giant hogweed" (which takes on more significance in my current fight against a takeover of dandelions) and "the fountain of salmacis", all of which run about 8 minutes or more each. Hackett and collins shine on "hogweed", probably the best track of the bunch, an escalating war march sung savagely by gabriel. (i love his lines like "botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge!" and how he even identifies it by its latin name, "heracleum mantegazzianii" which makes it sound even more menacing, like a vampiric race that has been around for millenia.) "seven stories" is sadly poetic ruminating on a life focused on the wrong things ("despair that tires the world brings the old man laughter") underpinned by the darkly ominous moog (via tony banks). "harold the barrel" is the first really good "cornball" genesis song in a long line of really good cornball songs from "cuckoo cocoon" and "i know what i like" to "illegal alien" and "i can't dance". You can hear Phil's lead vocals in "for absent friends". "fountain of salmacis" closes the album leaving me question "hogweed"'s self-proclaimed title as album-best as it sounds as epic (catch that hackett guitar tear dueling with Phil's drums near-midway through or tony banks dueling with Phil nearer the end) and is more humanly-touching.