Review Summary: Another nice album of a Genesis member. Proves that Rutherford could write good stuff as a solo.
“Smallcreep’s Day” is the debut solo studio album of Mike Rutherford and that was released in 1980. The line up on the album is Mike Rutherford, Anthony Phillips, Noel McCalla, Simon Phillips and Morris Pert.
As many of we know, Mike Rutherford is one of the founding members of Genesis with Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and Anthony Phillips. Along with Banks he was the only band’s member to belong to Genesis throughout their entire musical history. Initially, in Genesis, Rutherford was the bassist of the band but with the departure of Hackett of the group, he took also the guitarist duties. His guitar style isn’t considered as technical as Hackett’s, still he has a guitar style with some harmony and creativity. While touring, Rutherford switches between bass and guitar with the American guest musician Daryl Stuermer. The bass line of Rutherford is known for being well done and with great innovation and technical base, having been prominent in the movement of progressive rock. Rutherford also exceeded as a performer of 12 string guitar and backing vocals on Genesis. However, he described his playing as average and said that he always considered himself as a songwriter, first and foremost. He also collaborated on some albums with other artists.
After the release of Genesis’ ninth studio album “And Then There Were Three…” released in 1978, during the musical hiatus of Genesis, Rutherford recorded two solo albums, “Smallcreep’s Day” in 1980 and “Acting Very Strange” in 1982, and he also created and leads the AOR band Mike And The Mechanics with a great and enviable commercial success.
“Smallcreep’s Day” is divided into two distinct parts. The first part is a conceptual piece where the title suite occupies all the A side of the original vinyl disc. It’s based on the dark and surrealist novel of the same name by Peter Currell Brown. The second part occupies the entire B side with a handful of five individual songs without any common points.
So, “Smallcreep’s Day” has six tracks and all were written by Rutherford. The title track suite “Smallcreep’s Day” is divided into seven parts: “Between The Tick & The Tock”, “Working In Line”, “After Hours”, “Cats And Rats (In This Neighbourhood)”, “Smallcreep Alone”, “Out Into The Daylight” and “At The End Of The Day”. As I said before, this is a piece based on a novel with the same name by Peter Currell Brown edited in 1965. The story is a surreal satire about the modern industrial life. The book explores some of the author’s ideas about human relationships, freedom and the values of the human life. Some passages on the book are hilarious, some depressing and some macabre. About the music itself, I can say that it has many elements of Genesis’ early progressive sound and that it’s truly a progressive music piece. In reality, there is nothing to be in debt to some of the best musical moments produced by Genesis in their history. If you like “Wind And Wuthering” and “...And Then There Were Three...”, this suite can be a feast for you, really.
The second part of the album, the B side on “Smallcreep’s Day” has the five individual songs mentioned by me before. They’re all more guided into the pop style and in general they have a bit less quality. “Moonshine” and “Time And Time Again” are the best. “Moonshine” has lots of bass, bombastic keyboard cascades that remind me “Behind The Lines”. This is a pretty and solid track with an excellent harmony. “Time And Time Again” is a nice song pleasantly sung by Noel. The chorus breaks out of the melancholy with some optimism. The middle section of the song has a nice brief solo by Mike. This is another good song. “Romani” has interesting vocals and rhythmic niceties like frequent changes in signatures and speed make it enjoyable. This is a typical Rutherford’s song writing, and it sounds clever and at ease. “Every Road” is carried mainly by the acoustic guitar. It sounds like a symbiosis of “Over My Shoulder” and “Open Door” and spreads some good vibrations along the way. “Overnight Job” is a dynamic song. In the middle the song changes directions completely and proves yet again that one of Mike’s strengths lies in writing strong and catchy riffs.
Conclusion: What remains to me is the overall impression this is an album of Genesis under an assumed name, if you don’t count the five individual tracks. The title track “Smallcreep’s Day” reaches a length of 25 minutes and it can perfectly replaced “Supper’s Ready” as the lengthiest Genesis’ related piece of music ever made by them. However, as I wrote before, we have to separate the two parts of the album. The first part is a masterpiece but the second part has in general slightly lower quality and isn’t progressive. There are many similarities between “Smallcreep’s Day” and “Tarkus” of Emerson, Lake And Palmer and “2112” of Rush. The similarities aren’t, of course, on the type of music but how the album was made. On all these three albums, the side A is a masterpiece but the side B has significantly an inferior quality level. Unfortunately, due to the differences between both sides of the album, “Smallcreep’s Day” is rather an unbalanced album and because of that it failed to be a masterpiece, has happened with “Tarkus” and “2112”.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
