Genesis: ”Nursery Cryme’ – Is this really their best album!?
Nursery Cryme could be the band’s best album – and here are the reasons why. It is a dark piece of English eccentricity and prog grandure.
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#genesis #ranking #classicalbum
@larrylanberg3552
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
A great album needs to have not just great songs, but a good flow of songs. Nursery Cryme has it. Yes, I even like "For Absent Friends" – liked it the very first time I played this many, many many years ago. Only the final two tracks – "Harlequin" and "Salmacis" are not loved by me. But not hated either.
@Honestyalwaysprevails
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
I still feel Revelation is underrated and has some fab moments. For me the Lamb is number one as it has the most stand out songs on it…Anyway and the Chamber being two of my favourites… so does Duke though😮
@shipsahoy1793
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Well personally, this is my favorite Genesis album, with the three albums following it,
and the one preceeding it, close behind!😉
@j7jov32
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Its an important Genesis album, it was the first one to feature their best lineup after all. I still think Foxtrot, Selling England and The Lamb are where the real gold is though. I do however, think The Musical Box and Return Of The Giant Hogweed are up there with Supper's Ready, The Battle Of Epping Forest and a lot of other progressive pieces from the 1970s.
@davin6175
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
An album of monumental importantence in their catalog for sure as it set their unique tone and style to come.
But for me it's still a bit raw and lacks the subtly and complex depth of texture they would quickly achieve with Foxtrot and Selling England. For me, those two albums are constantly vying for number one and keep trading the number one spot back and forth on any given week.
Close behind those two would always be Hackett's swan song in Wind and Wuthering. A consistently strong album for me. The more muscular tracks on A Trick of the Tail might edge out some of Wind and Wuthering ones, but the softer tracks like Ripples, Man Man Moon etc are not my cup of twee! And on the softer side of things, W&W is definitely more interesting.
I think Nursery Cryme is stronger as a whole, song wise, than Trick of the Tail.
So in a crowded field of early, brilliant albums, I would probably knock it down to (firth of) fourth place.
But then there's the Lamb…
An uneven and indulgent album for sure, but could I really place Nursery Cryme and Trick of the Tail above the Lamb? I mean there so many killer moments in the Lamb…
some of the best jams they ever wrote.
Hmm…the top 6 or 7 are aggravatingly difficult to rank for sure. Luckily, in the end it doesn't really matter.
Just listen and enjoy what you like eh?
@mr.timebombman2230
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
I think it is. Foxtrot is a very close second for me.
@hubertvancalenbergh9022
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Cryme, Foxtrot and Selling England, yes. But I'd like to add Trespass. With hindsight The Lamb is a bit of a disappointment after Selling England.
@rabarebra
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
ABACAB is the best!
@markjohnson4217
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
'Foxtrot' was really THEE definitive Genesis album and their real moment of arrival. I also love Nursery Cryme, but there was nothing as impactful as Supper's Ready on any other Genesis album.
@johnkellykelly2434
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
I’ve always said nursery cryme is a musical version of hammer house of horror or tales of the unexpected
@PhilistineTheArtLuvr
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
It is an important album to me in that I first listen to it after I discovered Genesis by listening to SEBTP. So here's a band that wrote this amazing album and then come to find out they did an outstanding job with their three previous albums. Follow that with TLLDOB, TOTT, and W&W. It was like listening to Yes, I just didn't know which way to go! Forever grateful I grew up in that era.
@gavriilnick4225
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
masterpiece..i have it #1
@DaleBaker-m8g
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
An absolute fantastic album, by kids of barely 20. So brilliant. Beautifully played magical mellotron. It's an 11/10. I also adore foxtrot, that builds to beyond perfection, just too beautiful for words. But Yes, nursery cryme is awesome.
@HarpurheyPaul
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
A beautifully lucid and perceptive essay . When analysis becomes art . Fair dues .
@TDuke76
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Fast reply: NO 😄 Amazing album with one of the best track of their (or the) history , "The musical box", but the wonderful trio Foxtrot-Selling-Lamb is their peak imho, If I had to choose one I would say Foxtrot.
@TheLastOilMan
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
The BBC haha !now there is a subject for a prog control album
@TheLastOilMan
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Decapitation , is cool !
@johntomanio3374
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
MASTERPIECES: Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, A Trick of the Tail, And Then Their Were Three, Invisible Touch
PABLUM: Duke, Abacab, Genesis
@johnsims6323
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Nursery crime and fox trot belong to each other
@chrislewis-n3v
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
good album but only their fourth best-great stuff on the album but some of it is a bit clunky- best cover though!
@mikewhichard1426
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
My favorites are trick of the tail, wind and wuthering, and then there were three.
@halcyon289
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
My favourite album is Nursery Cryme .
@David-xl9cp
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
This was my first of two genesis albums, I also bought Foxtrot at the same time in 1973. Just the NC cover is what LP covers where made for, this cover also appearing in part on the Fox album. The NC album is certainly a mystical album and one I play a lot. So yes, could be their best long lasting album, although the Knife, lead the way for this album, and then of course there is Supper Ready.
@chrisguygeezer
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Selling England was their best.
@kurtkish6970
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Musical Box and R o t Giant Hogweed are reasons enough to make it their best.
Selling England # 2.
Lamb is my least fav Gabriel Genesis.
Also- no Gabriel: no Genesis for me.
I don’t care how good the composition/writing is.
@N37L
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Loved the album, won't be clicking on this bloke again though.
@Egill2011
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Better than Selling England by the Pound and Foxtrot? Nursery Cryme is brilliant, no doubt but …
@danaaronmusic
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Not sure I can pick a favorite Genesis album, but this is the last one I'll be clinging to as the hogweed chomps my record collection and my arm.
@realmdrakkar
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Nursery, Foxtrot, and England are all 5-star albums for me. Which is the best? Depends on the day.
@jose_ramon_777
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Good review, but I must disagree with you when you say that Nursery Cryme is "Gothic".
If we consider the loose definition of "Gothic" in the context of the literary realm, namely works which center around "dark" and "super natural" themes, I don't see how Nursery Cryme, or any Genesis album, classifies as "Gothic".
While some of the lyrical content of this and other Genesis albums may indeed contain dark or supernatural themes, the choice of backing music is much too pastoral and bright to sustain any darker elements. Banks' light and spirited keyboards, alone, undermine any darker elements that the band wanted to portray. Nevermind Collins' weak, childlike vocals, which in no way support a Gothic context.
I understand that with Gabriel era Genesis there is a counterplay between the lyrics and the music, where dark and light play a tug-of-war. But that element of their music is EXACTLY what destroys any chance of the works being truly "Gothic".
On the other hand, the early works of Van Der Graaf Generator are "Gothic" in every sense of the aforementioned definition. The lyrical content fits the bill and the music is aggressive, abrasive, atonal, angular, highly distorted and written in minor keys that accentuate the "darkness" that the band was, and still is, known for.
@growlerthe2nd712
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
It’s my second favourite album of all time behind RUBBER SOUL by THE BEATLES ❤🎸✌️
@Gabriel-uq6iq
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Foxtrot is their best imo.
@frankstecker5675
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Klasse vinil..👍
@clivewatson3609
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Best band ever
@fabrikk60
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
After hearing hearing Steve's take on its mellotron swells, I'll never be able to hear "Fountain" the same way again. And I guess those swells would be female, otherwise there would only have been one.
@stevenseamus7308
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
Hmm… Yes… and then again… no. Leaning towards the slightly pretentious,
@AugCorreia
August 4, 2025 at 11:51 am
The Lamb…
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