Wise After The Event
	Produced by Rupert Hine
	Released on 1978
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
PB 9828 cover [high resolution scan]

I f you thought Steve Hackett couldn’t sing, you were right. Of course, there are times when he sounds like a choir of angels compared to Anthony Phillips. The pair and their rusty pipes have certainly produced some clunkers (Sides, Cured). Yet they’ve also made some beautiful music: Voyage of the Acolyte, The Geese & The Ghost. Wise After The Event is Phillips’ second (and second-best) album, an electric followup to the acoustic Geese that continues to make a case for Ant as a viable alternative to Hackett and the other ancillary avenues of Genesis (i.e., the solo music of Banks and Rutherford). Unfortunately, with Private Parts, Phillips settled the case out of court and wouldn’t get an audience again. But that’s a story for another rainy day. Here, Ant combines Jabberwockian imagery (faithfully illustrated by Peter Cross, one of my favorite album artists) with arrangements that invite comparison to the more mannered compositions found on Wind/Trick: “Your Own Special Way,” “Ripples,” etc. Not as well executed as all that, and Lord knows the singing is worse, but you get the picture. In fact, Wise explains why I’ve furrowed so deep in Phillips’ garden: this and Geese engender the sort of loyalty that’ll brush off his Private Parts in pursuit of the same progressive magic. Geese was far more genteel in effect, so I wouldn’t come here expecting an encore. Instead, Wise After The Event is what Ant might have sounded like in Genesis after Trespass: plugged in, spaced out, the mad hatter playing a musical joke. Maybe the better analogy, given the opening “We’re All As We Lie,” is to say that Phillips comes out swinging on Wise. Geese was like beautiful calligraphy in the margins, Wise is a more mainstream, progressive pop album. All of the songs on here are pretty good, a few (e.g., “Greenhouse”) are quite good and pretty too. Plus the album artwork is among the most splendid in prog’s great gallery.

TRACK LISTING

1. WE'RE ALL AS WE LIE    4:34
2. BIRDSONG    7:30
3. MOONSHOOTER    5:52
4. WISE AFTER THE EVENT    8:45
5. PULLING FACES    4:32
6. REGRETS    5:15
7. GREENHOUSE    (Anthony Phillips/Jeremy Gilbert)    3:00
8. PAPERCHASE    5:28
9. NO WHAT (ARE THEY DOING TO MY LITTLE FRIENDS?)    8:30
   
   All songs written by Anthony Phillips unless noted

CREDITS

ANTHONY PHILLIPS (aka THE VICAR, Vic Stench) -- vocals, harmonica, guitars, keyboards, sundries
MICHAEL GILES -- drums
JOHN G. PERRY -- bass (Wal custom)
Perkin Alanbeck -- synthesiser (2)
Gilbert Biberian -- orchestra conductor (6)
Mel Collins -- soprano sax (1), flutes (2)
Jeremy Gilbert -- keyboards (7), harp (9)
Rupert Hine (aka Humbert Ruse) -- percussion, backing vocals, locks, probs, modes and vibes
Rodent Rabble -- clicks, claps and crampons
David Katz -- orchestra assembly
Richard "Papercup" Austen -- engineers
Alan Perkins -- engineer
Steve Taylor -- engineer (6)
Peter Kelsey -- mixing
Peter Cross -- design and artwork

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