Friday, December 17, 1976

Genesis Wind & Wuthering released

Wind & Wuthering

Genesis

Released: December 17, 1976

Peak: 26 US, 7 UK, 31 CN, 57 AU Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 3.5 world (includes US + UK), 4.09 EAS

Genre: progressive rock

Tracks:

Eleventh Earl of Mar [7:46]
One for the Vine [10:01]
Your Own Special Way [6:19] (2/26/77, 62 US, 87 CB, 91 HR, 36 CL, 43 UK)
Wot Gorilla? [3:23]
All in a Mouse’s Night [6:40]
Blood on the Rooftops [5:29]
Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers… [2:24]
…In That Quiet Earth [4:50]
Afterglow [4:11]

Total Running Time: 51:03

Other Songs from This Era:

Match of the Day [3:24] *
Pigeons [3:12] *
Inside and Out [6:45] *

* Written during sessions for Wind & Wuthering. Released 5/20/1977 on Spot the Pigeon EP.

The Players:

Phil Collins (vocals, drums, percussion)
Steve Hackett (guitar)
Mike Rutherford (bass, guitar, backing vocals)
Tony Banks (keyboards, backing vocals)

Rating:

3.436 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings)

About the Album

Another album followed by year’s end. “Like its predecessor, the album fit into a progressive rock mode, but even the extended pieces…had a lighter texture and tone to much of its length and was typical of most art rock of the time.” ^BE The single, “Your Own Special Way,” gave the band their first taste of chart success in the U.S.

“Wind & Wuthering followed quickly on the heels of A Trick of the Tail and they’re very much cut from the same cloth, working the same English eccentric ground that was the group's stock in trade since Trespass.” ^AM “A Trick of the Tail played like Genesis’ attempt at crafting a great Genesis record without Peter Gabriel” ^AM and this album stills shows the band “seeking the grandeur of the Gabriel years” ^JP as they “went mostly for the slow and momentous, complete with filibustering interludes that anesthetize the songs.” ^JP

“Wind & Wuthering finds Genesis tentatively figuring out what their identity will be in this new phase of their career. The most obvious indication of this is Mike Rutherford’s Your Own Special Way, which is both the poppiest tune the group had cut and also the first that could qualify as a love song. It stands out on a record that is, apart from that, a standard Genesis record, but quite a good one in that regard.” ^AM