Genesis released their final Peter Gabriel-era album as a conceptual double album set in New York City in 1974. Gabriel deliberately shifted away from the band's traditional English backdrop, centring the narrative on a Puerto Rican immigrant character called Rael and drawing creative inspiration from American musicals like West Side Story alongside surrealist filmmakers such as Alejandro Jodorowsky.

During recent retrospective discussions marking the album's 50th anniversary, guitarist Steve Hackett posed the question of whether the record had inadvertently foreshadowed the punk rock movement. Gabriel responded by suggesting the band was ahead of its time, noting something emerging from the New York scene at that moment. However, observers have questioned this assertion, observing that the unadorned directness central to punk stands at odds with Genesis's elaborate instrumental approach, despite thematic parallels in the album's focus on revolution, consumerism critique, and social disconnection.