I was out with Rob, a die-hard Genesis fan. We both used to listen to them a lot, but I was always loaned the vinyl – usually from Rob, I think.

Anyway we were wandering around the Trafford centre (another essay needed on this edifice on another day). Bless him, he bought me Selling England by the Pound and Trick of the Tale. It’s very odd listening to Selling 20 (at least) years later and hearing it digitally remastered and really clear. It’s a different animal from what I remember. I’m really struck by the musicality (jargon, sigh) and the fact that the music is arranged, rather than thrown together. Also, it still works really well after all these years. I think the remastered version must be very close to what the guys heard in in the studio, before it got pressed into vinyl and lost some fidelity. People say that CD’s and digital music in general are better at the mid range (because of the samping rate), of course this works perfectly for Genesis. This is why some classical records sound very thin on CD, and also why you get bass boost on some CD players, I think.

I really like the guitar solos that arent 300 mile an hour dashes across the keyboard, I can hear some melody and thought. Interestingly I have a problem doing this when I play and always end up playing way too fast. Probably I don’t play enough – lack of time, not inclination.

I’ve not really listened to Trick before. Weirdly the vocals are really muddy, I think comparing it with Selling. Collins isn’t Gabriel, Gabriel’s vocals are much clearer, but I also think there’s a difference in the production. A lot of echo muddying them compared with Selling. I’d love to hear trick with less echo on the vocals. They must’ve bought a new echo unit and had to use it. Or Collins likes echo …

Goal setting

I’ve been doing some exercises on goal setting. Helps you understand why you want to do things and what you need to do to get the things you want. It’s quite a scary exercise in that I’ve remembered a lot of things I haven’t had time for, like creative writing and playing my guitar. I also have a serious burn to do them when I let myself think about them. It’s funny how you let your horizons shrink through lack of looking up.

Later…