The tenth studio album by Genesis, Duke, got here after the band’s longest hiatus between LP releases. But when they have been frightened concerning the response from their viewers, two years on from …And Then There Have been Three…, they needn’t have been. Duke, launched on March 28, 1980, turned Genesis’ largest album to this point and their first UK No.1. It made the US chart on April 26 and climbed to No.11, one other career-best to that time.
The album noticed Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford persevering with to discover the extra pop-oriented aspect of their sound, notably on the signature hits “Turn It On Again” and the Collins composition “Misunderstanding.” However there was nonetheless a lot right here for his or her progressive fan base to get their enamel into.
5 of the 12 tracks on Duke have been band collaborations, crediting all three as writers, whereas Banks added three solo and Rutherford and Collins two every. The album was recorded in direction of the top of 1979 at Polar Studios, the well-known house of the ABBA sound in Stockholm, and produced by Genesis with David Hentschel.
“Duke serves as a testament to strength, even in reduced numbers,” wrote David Fricke in Rolling Stone in 1980. “As art rock goes, ‘Turn It On Again’ is vibrant rock & roll with keyboards, rhythm section and vocalist deliberately working at rhythmic cross-purposes. Such typical examples of the group’s epic classicism as ‘Duchess,’ ‘Man of Our Times,’ ‘Duke’s Travels’ and ‘Duke’s End’ possess a refreshing urgency marked by singer-drummer Collins’ confident snap and the cool orchestral breeze of Banks’ ivory armoury.”
Take heed to the most effective of Genesis on Apple Music and Spotify.
Duke outdid all of its predecessors by topping the UK charts, in its first week of launch, unseating the Johnny Mathis album Tears and Laughter within the course of. It stayed a second week and logged eight straight weeks within the Prime 5, and 30 within the prime 75. The band’s earlier greatest was the No.3 peak achieved by Promoting England By The Pound, A Trick Of The Tail and …And Then There Have been Three… The brand new album took till solely July to go platinum within the UK. Within the States, too, it gave them a brand new private greatest, and was licensed platinum there in 1988.
