The band now relished the opportunity to prove that Genesis had always been a songwriting collective, not just a vehicle for their former frontman. With Gabriel gone, there was one less potentially dissenting voice. He, Rutherford and Banks had always been Genesis’ principal writers, with Steve Hackett chipping away on the sidelines. In some ways it was easier without Gabriel. In contrast, A Trick Of The Tail took a little over a month.
Recording The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway had been a tortuous affair. By the time Hackett turned up three days later, they’d written most of Dance On A Volcano and Squonk. In the meantime, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins and Tony Banks began jamming in a rehearsal studio in Acton, West London. The guitarist was busy finishing his first solo album, Voyage Of The Acolyte. It might have been more interesting had he sung "Angeles.Steve Hackett was absent when Genesis started work on what would become A Trick Of The Tail in July ’75. soared after he took his bow at the Oscars with Celine Dion and Trisha Yearwood. Ironically, "Angeles" was included on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, which won Smith the acclaim of Hollywood's biggest and brightest voting body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The lyrics are a darkly biting rejection of the hypercapitalist dream machinery of Los Angeles (it would make a great theme song for Smith's label, Kill Rock Stars). "Angeles" is equally ethereal - Smith's acoustic fingerpicking spins out notes which briskly move around a single atmospheric keyboard chord, like aural minnows swimming toward a solitary light at the surface of the water. He sings, in his endearingly limited whisper, of late-night drinking and introspection, and his subdued strumming creates a minor-key mood befitting the mysteries of self. "Between the Bars," for example, plays to Smith's strengths perfectly. The humbler arrangements are better suited to the sparse equipment. While the full-band songs are catchy and smart, Smith's recording equipment isn't quite up to the standards set by the Beatles and the Beach Boys. The most alluring numbers, however, are still his quietly melancholy acoustic ones.
Several of the songs mimic the melodic mastery of pop bands from 1960s. While he still plays all the instruments himself, he plays more of them. Elliott Smith's third album finds his one-man show getting a little more ambitious.
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