Fifty thousand men were sent to do the will of one

Genesis - A Trick of the Tail - 1976
Genesis - Wind & Wuthering - 1976

For a band, losing their singer and leader is usually a death blow. When that singer happened to also be the founder of the band, death is pretty much guaranteed. So we have to admire the guts as well as the talent and determination that Genesis members had when they decided to continue even after Peter Gabriel's departure.
Genesis is one of the few bands that, not only survived, but even thrived and would become a huge commercial success in the future.
I think that the unlikelihood of the band releasing anything halfway decent has had a lot to do with how highly everybody regards A Trick of the Tail. Since I actually came to know Genesis way after Gabriel had left, I never had too many expectations one way or another.  And I never really liked this album much. It sounds to me like Genesis at its most annoying, but with a lesser singer.
Wind & Wuthering, on the other hand, is an album I have always loved. I was listening to it earlier today, and I can't believe how long it's been since I last played it.
Now, I have always liked Gabriel's Genesis more than the "Gabriel-less" version. That's not entirely true, because my problem is more with the 1980s Genesis. But this always gave me a sort of bias against anything they did after Gabriel departed. Which is sort of understandable, since the only album between Wind and their more commercial 80s sound would be And then there were three which, while not entirely bad (as far as I can recall) was nothing special either.
So Wind got lost between albums I like much less. It's funny because for many, Trick is a much better album. But I think that while their first post-Gabriel release had them, pretty much, trying the old pattern, this one is them looking towards the future, while still keeping some of the best things of the old version of the band. Yes, it's an album where we can begin to see the more commercial side of them, and the ballad "Your own Special way" is as much a 70s sappy ballad as it could get. But it's also an album that has some of the most beautiful songs they've ever written, with "One for the Vine" and "Blood on the Rooftops" being two of my favourite ones, it has some interesting jazzy experimentations that never get too annoying of boring. And I think Steve Hackett is much better here than in the previous album.
So, yes, basically I am writing about two albums at the same time so that I can happily ignore one of them. I know. I'm not going to say that Trick is a bad album, but it's one that I'm pretty sure I won't listen to again in a very good while.
Wind & Wuthering, on the other side, is one I will listen to a lot more often than I have in the last few years.

• The song "A Trick of the Tail" was the first single the band released to be accompanied by a promotional video. I actually like that song and I think, at least, it's different. The video is quite bad, but it was the 70s after all. It also shows that Phil Collins was never really young. 
• "Squonk" is based on a US mythical creature that, upon being captured, dissolves in a pool of its own tears. It's one of the other songs I kind of like, although I think I much prefer the live version.
• "All in a Mouse's Night", from Wind, tells a story about Tom & Jerry, which pretty much describes them quite accurately. Tom fails to catch Jerry, gets knocked by a vase, and the song ends with his story about "this monster mouse, he's ten feet tall / With teeth and claws to match". Typical cat!
• My chosen song from Wind is "One for the Vine". It's not only my favourite song from the album, but one of my favourite Genesis songs. And considering how big a Gabriel fan I am, that's saying a lot. It's a perfect song. 

Truth is false and logic lost

Rush - 2112 - 1976

I don't think I've ever been so conflicted after listening to an album as with this one. 

This is one of those albums that I have because, well, I sort of had to, but never paid much attention to. And I can fully understand why, because I still can't really enjoy listening to it much. It's certainly not the music, but Geddy Lee's annoying vocals. By now, you probably know that I don't like high pitched voices in men. And Mr. Lee is as high as it gets. And I find his voice annoying and distracting. 

But what I realise now is that the music is quite brilliant. While not fully progressive metal, this album is closer to that genre than anything else so far, other than some King Crimson moments. 

The first side is all taken up by the "2112" suite, a science fiction tale of an oppressed world in which not even music exists anymore. It's a fascinating and strange mixture of genres, and while I think it lags a bit halfway through its 20 minute run, it's a massive and brilliant piece of music. 

Side B has five considerable short songs, all less than 4 minutes, and they're a bit of a mixed bag, ranging from a full romantic song, "Tears", to some real hard rockers, like the closing track, "Something for Nothing". 

Still, there's that voice that, I'm pretty sure, will continue preventing me from really enjoying this album.

• The liner notes credits "the genius of Ayn Rand". This is because the story told in "2112" bears some resemblance to Rand's novel Anthem. Because of this, they received accusations of being right-wing extremist, and even of nazism. Yes, they accused Geddy Lee, son of two Holocaust survivors, of nazism. It's somewhat relieving to be reminded that full-blown stupidity already existed back then. 
• I'm not going to put the whole 20 minutes of "2112" here. Rather, I'll put a song I liked a lot from Side B called "The Twilight Zone". Also, it's actually based on Rod Serling and the cult classic series, which I have always loved. And someone took the trouble to make a video with excerpts from the series, so that's about perfect.