Abacab

Abacab is a 1981 studio album by British progressive rock band Genesis. The album marked 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 more radio-friendly pop music sound. The title track, "No Reply At All", and "Man on the Corner" were all respectable hits as singles. The album hit UK # 1 and US # 7, selling several million copies worldwide.

Another noteworthy element of Abacab is drummer Phil Collins' further refinement of his distinctive drum sound, involving reverberation, noise gates and compression in order to achieve inordinately loud and authoritative percussion. This continued a trend Collins began on his solo hit single "In the Air Tonight", as well as the song "Intruder" from former bandmate Peter Gabriel's third album. On Abacab, most of the tracks feature gated drums, and the sound would reach the apex of its expression on the single "Mama" from the followup to this album, 1983's Genesis. Collins' drum sound would become so heavily imitated throughout the 1980s that Collins later would openly express his annoyance over it.

The album takes its name from an early arrangement of the musical parts that make up the title track. "There were three bits of music in Abacab, and we referred to them as 'section a', 'section b', and 'section c'...and at different times, they were in different order. We'd start with 'section a' and then have 'section c'...and at one point in time, it spelled Abacab. On the final version, it's not that it all, it's like 'Accaabbaac'." – Mike Rutherford.

Track listing

1. "Abacab" (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) – 7:02
2. "No Reply At All" (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) – 4:41
3. "Me and Sarah" (Jane Banks) – 6:00
4. "Keep It Dark" (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) – 4:34
5. "Dodo/Lurker" (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) – 7:30
6. "Who Dunnit?" (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) – 3:22
7. "Man on the Corner" (Collins) – 4:27
8. "Like It or Not" (Rutherford) – 4:58
9. "Another Record" (Banks, Collins, Rutherford) – 4:30

Personnel

Genesis

• Tony Banks – keyboards, vocals
• Phil Collins – percussion, drums, vocals
• Mike Rutherford – bass, guitar

Additional personnel

• Earth, Wind & Fire – horns

Production

• Producer: Genesis
• Engineer: Hugh Padgham
• Arranger: Tom Tom 84
• Artwork: Bill Smith

Charts

Album

Singles