Abacab

Abacab is the eleventh studio album by Genesis, released in 1981.

The album marks a sharp stylistic jump, begun by the band on its preceding album Duke, away from their progressive rock style of the 1970s and toward a radio-friendly pop music sound. As such, “Abacab” is still viewed today with mixed opinions from both fans and critics. But the bandmembers say that the change in musical direction, beginning with 1980’s “Duke” and continued with “Abacab,” was necessary for the band’s survival in the changing musical climate they found themselves in. Despite the change, songs like the title track, “No Reply At All”, “Keep It Dark” and “Man on the Corner” were all respectable hit singles. And while Abacab may have cost Genesis some fans, they earned many others, with the album hitting UK #1 and US #7, selling several million copies worldwide and becoming the band’s first Platinum selling album in the US.

Another element of Abacab is drummer Phil Collins’s more 80s approach of his drum sound, involving reverberation, noise gates and compression in order to achieve a loud and authoritative percussive effect, which now sounds dated. This continued a trend Collins developed along with engineer Hugh Padgham on his solo hit single “In the Air Tonight”, as well as the piece “Intruder” from former bandmate Peter Gabriel’s third album.

In addition to pounding rock, Abacab incorporates upbeat, accessible music - an increasingly important element in Genesis’s style at the time.