The Strawbs' original era drew to a close alongside the end of the '70s. They managed to consistently produce inspired material despite an array of personnel changes, not to mention a few record label changes and all the music biz politics that come with record labels. Somehow, Dave Cousins managed to keep the band going as both a recording and touring outfit, providing great songs and a sense of creative focus that sustained the group until the challenges of management and finances became insurmountable.

This installment of Catalog Crawl covers the creative regrouping that Genesis did at the end of the '70s through a double-live album that captured the last of the Hackett era and two studio albums that found them reworking their sound in a way that prepared them for a level of international success that they probably couldn't even conceive of…

these three albums are all interesting listens, particularly as a kind of aesthetic Rorschach test for how much of a prog traditionalist you are…

Despite the conflicting agendas and lineup shuffling, the three albums covered here are impressively consistent and artful, showing that the pressure of artistic conflict often produced diamonds in the world of prog rock.

As the Strawbs moved towards the mid-'70s, they reached their artistic peak. With founding member Dave Cousins guiding the ship, they cut of a string of progressive rock albums that combined lush, ambitious arrangements an approach that synthesized English folk, rock and progressive ambitiousness in the structuring of pieces and their ability to make a variety of styles cohere.

You could argue that the trio of albums presented in this Catalog Crawl represent the classic lineup of Genesis at its most unified and groundbreaking, delivering material that had complexity without sacrificing melody.

All three albums covered here represent a compelling and harmonious union between strong songwriting, ambitious musicianship and that vintage, earthy yet cleanly defined style of recording that defined so many great albums of the '70s.

This installment of Catalog Crawl looks at their first three albums, which cover a rapid pattern of growth and development… By the final album covered here, they completed their lineup and their development into a style of progressive rock that would sustain them well into the '70s.