Genesis - 3x3 (1982)

The rise of punk in Britain in the late seventies meant that British progressive bands known for their innovative but pretentious rock music had to adapt to the changed musical landscape or fall by the wayside.  Genesis were more successful in adapting than most such bands, slowly evolving with a more streamlined, pop-oriented sound while still keeping one toe in art rock, as their early-eighties albums Duke and Abacab proved.  But Genesis's attempt at a prog-pop compromise left their sound, well, compromised; while the band - down to a trio since the departure of lead singer Peter Gabriel and, later, guitarist Steve Hackett - came up with interesting singles, their albums were not as consistent.  So a Genesis extended player - a record with more material than a single but not a full-length album - made sense.

3x3 is a British-release EP of three songs that Genesis - drummer/vocalist Phil Collins, guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford, and keyboardist Tony Banks - recorded during the Abacab sessions but left off that album.  It was not released in the United States, since, except for a brief period in the mid-eighties, EPs were never popular there.  (Its contents were included on the U.S. edition of the 1982 double concert/studio album Three Sides Live, the studio-track side being side four.)   The songs on this record provide an excellent sampler of Genesis's music at the time, with elliptical keyboard riffs, tight guitar passages, and some punchy rhythms. As a singer, Collins shows a surprisingly diverse range, going from tough to wistful with ease.  "Paperlate," the first cut, is a forceful commentary on working one's way up to the top, with a brilliant contribution from Earth, Wind & Fire's horn section - much better than their playing on the Abacab track "No Reply At All."  The group gets wistful with the autumnal ballad "You Might Recall," a tender but strong paean to a lost love.

Collins has disavowed the third tune, "Me and Virgil," an earnest effort at fusing Americana with a modern sound; it tells the tale of two brothers in the country who take care of their mother until she dies and then go off to find themselves in the city.  The song is indeed too long and loses its way musically, but the premise is still interesting, and the vignette of the dying mother is touching.  "Me and Virgil" sums up 3x3 as much as the previous two tracks; it shows Genesis as a band smaller and more musically diminished than the grand enterprise Peter Gabriel fronted, but determined to carry on and find new means of expression.  Criticized for their pomposity in the seventies and their mainstream pop sound in the eighties, Genesis has nonetheless come up with enough good work to earn a place in rock and roll history, and the songs on 3x3, while varied in quality, are more than just a bunch of tunes that deserve to go by like leaves upon the water.

(I've never reviewed an extended player before!  This is the last record review of mine for awhile, I need another break.)