“Squonk” by Genesis

"Squonk" comes off A Trick of the Tail, the Genesis album of 1976, and it lumbers out of the speakers like some great beast crashing through a bog. Mike Rutherford wrote the words and the music with Tony Banks, and the band produced it alongside David Hentschel, who also sat behind the desk as engineer.

Phil Collins handles the lead vocal and the backing voices while pounding the kit with real weight, and Rutherford doubles up on bass and bass pedals so the bottom end never lets go. Banks piles on mellotron, organ and synthesizer in thick, churchy layers, and Steve Hackett's electric guitar threads through the gaps. It's art rock with its sleeves rolled up: grand, heavy and just a little bit sinister.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.