Top Ten Best Genesis Albums

The best albums ever made by the British rock band.
The Top Ten
1 Selling England By The Pound

I have recently started to collect Genesis albums (vinyl) having been brought up on them coutesy of my big brother!
I was around the age of 5 when "Selling" was out and my brother would have been around 18 so this gives an idea of my genesis journey so far. I am now 47!

I love this album and without doubt it gets my vote for No1. I also have Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot so I think its fair to say that I am a true "Gabriel" and will accept nothing less.
This album is a master class of brilliance and I find myself playing it over and over again. To me it sums up the eccentricity of England past and boasts some outstanding tracks that will leave you wanting more. Some great solo work and vocals complete this wonderful masterpiece.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have done over the years.

2 Foxtrot

Every song on this album is a piece of art.
From the epic Watcher of the Skies, to the beautiful Time Tables and Can-Utility and the Coastliners. Get 'em out by Friday is great to listen, especially because of it's amazing bass lines, and Steve Hackett's Horizons is a wonderful classical guitar piece.
And then Supper's Ready, wow, I have listened to it over 10 times, since the first time 2 weeks ago. The whole piece is 22:54 minutes of genius. It brings you on a journey through lots of different musical styles. Definitely the best song Genesis has made.

Overall, after listing to Selling England by The Pound, A Trick of the Tale, Duke, Nursery Cryme and The Lamb, this is definitely my favourite!

3 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

I was able to tell this is one of the best albums ever made from the first song. The storyline by Peter Gabriel is strange but superb and the lyrics are awesome. Unlike their earlier albums there aren't really so many individual songs that stand out. Rather all the tracks flow together to form a single big song. The music is a logical extension to their earlier works and contains some hints as to how Genesis would later sound like. This album is comparable to Floyd's Wall: but this one easily beats it.

4 Trick of the Tail

Song writing, production, musicianship, this album had it all. Add to that that everyone thought they were done and this is the ultimate comeback statement. I missed Peter but this showed all the stuff his presence was suppressing in the band.

My personal favorite, can never get enough of this album. It took the departure of Gabriel (an immensely talented singer/songwriter) that brought about the most consistently amazing songs on any one album ever by this incredible band.

Just ground breaking. Brilliant. Critics claim they never had a truly classic album. I think this is a classic album, the best one of many that they had.

5 Nursery Cryme

I love Nursery Cryme. I mean, the sheer brilliance of the songwriting is mind blowing. Peter Gabriel is WAYY better then Phil Collins, and he shows that with fantastic songs like "The Musical Box" and "Return of The Giant Hogweed". "Harold the Barrel" is the best short song by far, and I find that "Seven Stones" is underrated. "The Fountain of Salamis" is great, and the other two songs ("For Absent Friends" and "Harlequin") are good, if not as good as the other songs. Nursery Cryme features some of the greatest work of Genesis.

6 Wind & Wuthering

Wind and Wuthering isn't my favorite album (The Lamb), but it definitely should be higher up. It is the last album with Hackett, and the last prog rock album they made. They certainly went out with a bang! Tony Banks adds swirling keyboards while Steve Hackett has soaring guitar parts, and Collins and Rutherford certainly aren't bad either! This album, Lamb, Selling England, and Seconds Out are prog rock at its best and Genesis' high points.

While "Your Own Special Way" isn't one of my favorite Genesis songs, "Wind & Wuthering" is still my favorite Genesis album. The dreamy pastoral moods conjured up by Tony Banks and Steve Hackett have always held a special place for me, and I wish they would have explored that more with subsequent albums had Hackett stayed with the group. Although, I do have to say that I've always loved the overall atmosphere of "... And Then There Were Three".

7 Duke

I love Peter Gabriel, but Duke is in my opinion the most underrated album of a criminally underrated band. The instrumental, mish-mash, masterpiece of a journey that is Duke's Travels is completely underpinned by the musical genius that is Tony Banks. Behind the Lines is upbeat and sensual, Man of Our Times is big and bold, Please Don't Ask is melancholy, not forgetting Misunderstanding and Cul-De-Sac. Phil really proved himself as the true successor to Gabriel on this. My absolute favourite piece of work by this outrageously talented, wonderful band.

8 Invisible Touch

Good mix of commercial and long songs. A record of the times and still played on radio. Domino "Par excellence".

Has some of the best production. Phil's voice and drumming was at the top of his form.
Rutherfords gutiar riffs, and of course Banks' great keybords!
One of my favourite ablums of all time!

Love this album all the way through. One of the best they ever made in my opinion.

9 Trespass

This fantastic album is often overlooked. Genesis certainly wasn't at its peak, but it contains the classic sound that would characterize Genesis albums for years to come. With masterpieces such as The Knife and Stagnation, it is an essential for any early Genesis fan. Be ready to be patient, though, because it is much more pastoral and peaceful than the group's later work.

Best album of all time and grossly underrated Genesis album. This may sound a bit contradicting but don't pay attention to any top ten lists! Listen to the albums and form your own opinion. I have not heard any bad Genesis albums from the Gabriel era, but Trespass is just perfect.

10 Genesis

This album was my first introduction to Genesis about thirty years ago, when I was fourteen years old! Even today, this album sounds as beautiful and mysterious as it did back then. This album has songs that are integrations of progressive rock and more commercial rock/pop songs. Having said that, this album, to me, transcends any genre, and still one of my favorite albums of all time.

This album is always underrated - personally I love this album from start to finish and this was the first Genesis album I actually liked all the way through. I totally agree with the other reviewer as this is also one my all time favourite albums.

The Contenders
11 Abacab

This album is in some ways revolutionary;it married prog, dance and pop with 9 killer songs. The only Genesis album I would listen to all the way through.

One of my pers favorite, can't explain why but Phil sounds like a good lyrics writer as-well on this!

12 We Can't Dance

My husband and I fell in love to this album. In my top 5 favorites.

13 ...And Then There Were Three

Deep in The Motherlode is my favourite Genesis track. The hazy but powerful atmosphere is unsurpassed. That relaxed shufgle, thise taurus bass pedals and the Nursery Cryme like middle bridge. Perfect track. Burning Rope for that instrumental bridge and guitar solo. Down and Out for Tony's meanest keyboard solo. Say It's alright Joe for for the beautiful melancholy. The Lady Lies for Mike's frightening bass playing. Also contained their first top 10 hit. This is the dark horse of the Genesis catalogue. Love it.

14 Seconds Out

Have always had the album in all it's forms. Saw the movie and it was truly wonderful. One of the three or four bands that have had the most influence on my musical upbringing.

A fantastic live album, so many strong songs and epic drumming from all three featured.

The best live album of Genesis.

15 Genesis Live

Genesis were a theatrical live band. This catches them at their peak, before Gabriel tried to copy Yes and Pink Floyd and The Who and make serious overblown concept albums.

Listened to this about 7000 times when I was a teenager. Totally unique.

16 The Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs
17 Spot the Pigeon
18 From Genesis To Revelation

Not as good as the rest of the Gabriel era, but definitely not a throwaway album like people make it out to be. Still an enjoyable album in my opinion.

I still prefer this album far more than their last number of albums.

19 Three Sides Live

Awesome live versions of a number of superior Genesis songs, highlighted by Behind the Lines/Duchess and the amazing Old Medley, featuring a relentlessly driving version of In the Cage, the soaring keyboard section of Cinema Show, and a truly overpowering vocal performance by Phil Collins on Afterglow. My only regret with album is that I wish the band would have held off a few months in releasing it so that Supper's Ready, which was part of the 1982 Encore Tour setlist, could have been included as the "fourth side live."

20 The Way We Walk
21 The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts
22 Calling All Stations

It's an album I initially refused to listen to, but I've been listening to it very recently and I think that it's a solid album, with some excellent tracks that grow on you. Yes, Ray Wilson isn't Peter, or Phil, but I think he did a much better job than people credit him for. In a way, I'm sorry that I didn't listen to this album sooner.

They should have released "The Dividing Line" as a single.
Most people would have no idea who they were listening to.

Then why did you vote for it, Caleb9000?

23 Live Over Europe 2007

A brilliant ending to the Genesis story, a 2.5 hour celebration of the band's awesome, diverse music.

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