Abacab

For the song, see Abacab (song).

Abacab

Abacab.jpg

Studio album by Genesis

Released 14 September 1981

Recorded May–June 1981

Studio The Farm, Chiddingfold, Surrey

Genre

Pop rock · art rock

Length 47:10

Label Charisma (UK) Atlantic (USA) Vertigo (South America)

Producer Genesis

Genesis chronology

Duke (1980) Abacab (1981) 3X3 (1982)

Singles from Abacab

1."Abacab" Released: 14 August 1981 2."No Reply at All" Released: 9 September 1981 3."Keep It Dark" Released: 23 October 1981 4."Man on the Corner" Released: 5 March 1982

Abacab is the eleventh studio album from the English rock band Genesis, released in September 1981 on Charisma Records in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in the United States. The sound is more synth-oriented but sparingly arranged, with less of a dense texture than previous albums.

Abacab became the band's second consecutive UK No. 1 album. It reached No. 7 in the U.S. where it was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for over 2 million copies sold.

Contents 1 Background and recording 2 Release 2.1 Critical reception 2.2 Tour 2.3 2007 reissue 3 Track listing 4 Personnel 5 References 6 External links

Background and recording
Genesis initially wrote an album's worth of material which they subsequently discarded because they saw themselves as becoming, in Mike Rutherford's words, "a caricature of ourselves". In what he saw as a major turning point for the group, they made a decision to throw out any songs which sounded like anything they had done before.[1]

Genesis produced Abacab themselves. Engineer Hugh Padgham, who had assisted Collins on Face Value, continued to work on Genesis and Collins recordings through the end of the 1980s.

The album takes its name from an early arrangement of the title track. Rutherford said on the U.S. radio show In the Studio with Redbeard (which spotlighted Duke and Abacab in one episode): "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 at all, it's like 'Accaabbaac'."[2]

Three songs from the Abacab sessions — "Paperlate", "You Might Recall", and "Me & Virgil" — were issued on the 3X3 EP. They were also issued on the non-UK releases of 1982's Three Sides Live. Two other songs from the sessions, "Naminanu" and "Submarine", appeared as B-sides on the "Abacab" singles, but were originally intended to be part of "Dodo/Lurker", where the order would have been either "Naminanu/Dodo/Lurker/Submarine" or "Dodo/Lurker/Submarine/Naminanu".

The keyboard sound on "Who Dunnit?" is the result of Banks changing the presets on his Prophet synthesizer as he plays. Live performances of this song featured the novelty of Rutherford playing drums alongside Chester Thompson (although Collins played drums on the studio version).

Release
The album was released with four different embossed covers simultaneously across the country, all depicting the same collage but with the paper shapes in different colours. The four different cover variants are usually identified by the colour of the largest upper shape adjacent to the title lettering; this shape being coloured navy blue, red, peach, and yellow.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source

Rating

AllMusic 4.5/5 stars[3] Q 2/5 stars[5] Rolling Stone 3/5 stars[4]

Rolling Stone praised the album for shedding the "ivory-tower artistry" of their previous albums, turning to sparse arrangements and "highly rhythmic interplay" and drawing inspiration from popular contemporaries such as XTC and The Police.[4] AllMusic's retrospective review echoed this sentiment with greater emphasis, declaring "Duke showcased a new Genesis... but Abacab was where this new incarnation of the band came into its own." They also argued that although the album is far richer in pop hooks and accessibility than the band's previous works, at its heart Abacab "is truly modern art rock, their last album that could bear that tag comfortably."[3]

Tour

Genesis toured in support of Abacab during September–December 1981, covering Europe and North America. Shows in New York City and Birmingham, England comprised the Three Sides Live album released the following year. The tour also marked the first appearance of the Vari-Lite automated lighting system, the development of which had been paid for by the band.[citation needed]

2007 reissue

A new version of Abacab was released in the UK and Japan on 2 April 2007. It was released in the U.S. and Canada as part of the Genesis 1976-1982 box set on 15 May 2007. This includes the album in remixed stereo and surround sound, plus related video tracks.

Track listing
All songs written by Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford, except where noted.

Side one

No.

Title

Writer(s)

Length

1. "Abacab"    7:02 2. "No Reply at All"    4:41 3. "Me and Sarah Jane"  Banks 6:00 4. "Keep It Dark"    4:34

Side two

No.

Title

Writer(s)

Length

1. "Dodo/Lurker"    7:30 2. "Who Dunnit?" 3:22 3. "Man on the Corner"  Collins 4:27 4. "Like It or Not"  Rutherford 4:58 5. "Another Record"    4:30

Personnel
Genesis – production Tony Banks – keyboards Phil Collins – drums, vocals, drum machine, percussion Mike Rutherford – basses, guitars Additional personnel EWF Horns – horns on "No Reply at All" Hugh Padgham – engineer Bill Smith – album cover