…And Then There Were Three… by Genesis

...And Then There Were Three..., Genesis's ninth studio album, arrived in 1978 on Charisma in Britain and Atlantic in America, and the title is a head count. Steve Hackett had walked, leaving Tony Banks on keyboards, Mike Rutherford on bass and guitar and Phil Collins behind the kit and at the mike. Down a songwriter, the trio stopped building cathedrals and started writing songs you could hum on the bus: shorter, tighter, straight to the point. They cut it in the Netherlands with David Hentschel producing alongside them and mixed it at Trident Studios in London, and with Rutherford handling every guitar part in the studio himself, the old thicket of arrangements gets pruned right down.

The payoff was "Follow You Follow Me", a soft, lilting single that gave them their first major hit. The prog faithful grumbled about the lost intricacy while others welcomed the new directness, and when the band hit the road Daryl Stuermer came along to play guitar live.

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