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Post by Mr. Atari on Nov 26, 2010 3:34:18 GMT -5
A Trick of the Tail (1976)Prog-rock snobs compare songs like "Supper's Ready" to songs like "Throwing It All Away" and they conclude that Phil Collins ruined Genesis when he took over. That's like comparing "Manos" with "Wild Wild World of Batwoman" and saying Mike ruined MST3K. We know better than that. The truth is that the band was always a band, and songwriting was a group effort on every album. Another truth is that A Trick of the Tail sounds more like Gabriel-era Genesis than The Lamb Lies Down did. Incidentally, Collins didn't want the job of lead singer, he considered it a demotion. A lead singer didn't have to be a good musician the way a drummer did. "All the singer has to do is look good and shake his bum," he said. But none of the 400 potential Gabriel replacements could match his range or understanding of the sound they were looking for. After the fragmented writing and recording process of Lamb, the band decided to go back to the old way of writing together, and created the perfect sister album to Selling England By the Pound. That the two albums sound so much alike reveals just how much Banks and Rutherford (and not just Gabriel) influenced the sound of the earlier albums. A Trick of the Tail is equal in almost every way to Selling England..., and is a classic in its own right. Track 1: Dance on a VolcanoThe best track on the album is actually better than anything on Selling England (except for maybe "Firth of Fifth"). The staccato and jarring drum track is a turning point for the band's sound. Before, Phil played jazzy and slippery snare accents. Here, he pounds the crap out of the kit like John Bonham. The jam section is tight and aggressive, and the high point of their instrumental compositions. It's got a nice Frank Zappa quality to it, but it's still pure Genesis. Track 2: EntangledTony Banks and Steve Hackett were always the madrigal fans in the band. Here, they combined two pieces they were each working on into a long piece that features 12-string guitar, celeste piano sounds, and big harmonies in the chorus. If I didn't know better, I'd swear they wrote it as an intentional sequel to "More Fool Me". Track 3: SquonkA fan favorite that's a nice low-end rocker. The lyrics are about a mythological creature that, when captured, escapes by crying itself into non-existence. Nifty. Plus, "Squonk" is a pretty cool word. Not to belabor the point, but I defy anyone to listen to these 3 tracks and tell me they sound musically or lyrically different than anything from the Gabriel-led albums. They don't. Track 4: Mad Man MoonIf there was any change in the sound after Pete left, it was that Tony Banks was featured more as a player and songwriter. Over the next few albums, you'll find a higher percentage of keyboard-driven, moody ballads with a ton of chords. That's what this song is, and it is not an asset to this album. It's a decent song, but the piano feature section goes on way too long. Track 5: Robbery, Assault, and BatteryThe way Phil uses different voices in this song to tell a story with different characters emulates Gabriel's character songs (like "Get 'Em Out By Friday"). The hook in the main verse and chorus melody is a precursor to a lot of the '80s output (like "Illegal Alien" or "Just a Job To Do"). The jam in the middle sounds like vintage '70s Genesis. This song is a great representation of all eras of the Genesis sound. Track 6: RipplesA personal favorite. A gorgeous and emotive song, with some very powerful chord moves and melody. When they played this on their 2007 tour, it was a highlight of the show. Track 7: A Trick of the TailA goofy number that totally would have fit on an earlier album. In fact, Banks wrote it for the Foxtrot sessions, but couldn't make it work at the time. Musically, it sounds like a mash-up of "Penny Lane", "Getting Better", with a little bit of "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good" mixed in for good measure. Lyrically, it's about a creature that leaves his home (a city of gold) and gets stuck on earth, where he's captured and caged by the weird indigenous people (who've "got no horns and they got no tails"). Finally, he escapes and goes home. Whew, that was a close one. Track 8: Los EndosThe album goes out with quite a bang. "Los Endos" is a recapitulation of the musical themes from throughout the album. It's another instrumental jam that makes a musician like me salivate, and then give up any hope in my abilities. As a nice tribute to Gabriel, on the fade out Phil sings a line from "Supper's Ready": "There's an angel standing in the sun, free to get back home." As I mentioned above, Selling England by the Pound and A Trick of the Tail are Genesis's Rubber Soul and Revolver. They are so much alike, they HAVE to go together. Sure, you could listen to one without the other, but why would you want to? If you only buy two Genesis albums, this is the second one. *****
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Post by Mighty Jack on Nov 26, 2010 4:28:23 GMT -5
Ha, they did a song about a Squonk? That's cool, I love folklore and legends and songs/films/stories based on them, so I've got to give that tune a listen.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Nov 26, 2010 16:28:16 GMT -5
Wind and Wuthering (1976)Here's how the guys describe Wind and Wuthering: "It's the most romantic album we did, and probably my favorite." - Tony Banks "It's very much Tony's album...and I always see it as a feminine album; there were no real kind of ballsy driving songs on this album, and it's probably suffered for it." -Mike Rutherford It's definitely the most underrated and overlooked album in their catalog, and now I'm also going to underrate it. It's peaceful, layered, romantic, and most of all, boring. It's an album that works well on a cold, gray day. If music were weather, this album would be sleet. The title comes from Wuthering Heights, and two song titles are even taken from the last line of that book. Which makes sense, because if music were literature, this album would definitely be a cold and distant British novel. I think this is the album where the Genesis sound changed, and it had nothing to do with Phil Collins. Hardly anything on this album has to do with Phil Collins. It's almost entirely a Tony Banks and Steve Hackett feature. It's heavy with synth pads, acoustic interludes, and extended slow jams. If that's your thing, then bully for you. The only driving songs are the opener ("Eleventh Earl of Mar"), which is decent, but doesn't come close to the openers on other albums (like "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "Dance on a Volcano", or subsequent openers, "Down and Out" and "Behind the Lines") and the instrumental "Wot Gorilla?", which is decent but doesn't come close to instrumentals on other albums (like "Los Endos"). As for the rest of the album, it's not without its moments. "Your Own Special Way" (a Rutherford ballad) was their biggest hit at the time, and one that holds up pretty well. The album closer, Banks's "Afterglow", is a hidden gem that is a great sweeping, hold-up-your-lighter anthem. The rest of the album is pretty, but pretty forgettable. Taken as a whole, Wind and Wuthering is an enjoyable 50 minutes of wintertime listening. But there's nothing here that stands out to me and says, "Great music!" Recommended if you like layered keyboard or mellow background jams. ***1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Nov 27, 2010 18:17:57 GMT -5
And Then There Were Three (1978)A lot of Genesis albums seem to go in pairs. Nursery Cryme matches well with Foxtrot. As I mentioned before, Selling England... and A Trick of the Tail sound incredibly alike. The upcoming Duke and Abacab could be a double album. In that vein, I've always thought that Wind and Wuthering and And Then There Were Three match up. They sound like they were recorded simultaneously. With two big exceptions: 1) Guitarist Steve Hackett left in between the albums, and 2) someone decided to turn up the drums. First- the loss of Steve Hackett was a far bigger shift in the band's sound than the loss of Peter Gabriel. When Gabriel left, they didn't really lose much. Phil's vocal range and style was very similar, and he could still play drums. When Hackett left, the band lost 25% of their instrumentation. Rutherford picked up some slack, but he's never been a lead player. Now, not only was Tony Banks the main influence in writing synth heavy songs, he was also the featured soloist on 90% of the album. Gone are the days of finger tapping leads and ripping, extended guitar solos. Instead, it's shorter songs and high-treble rock organ accents. This shift was thankfully balanced with the new production work of bringing Phil's drums up in the mix. Everyone loves the drum entrance from "In The Air Tonight" (even Mike Tyson!). But a couple of years before that came out, Phil was pounding out amazing tom fills on this album. Just listen to the album opener, "Down and Out", and you'll be amazed. His drums save quite a few numbers on this album from being dull and keyboarded to death (see "The Lady Lies" or "Scenes from a Night's Dream"). ATTW3 takes the sounds and vibe from Wind and Wuthering and makes them a lot better. "Down and Out" is the superior sibling to "Eleventh Earl of Mar". "Burning Rope" feels just like "One for the Vine". "Undertow" sounds like the sequel to "Afterglow" (I still get them confused). "Many Too Many" picks up right where "Your Own Special Way" left off. But there is one other development on this album that was lacking before: hooks. Not only are the songs shorter, and the drums louder, but the songs have melodic choruses and catchy keyboard & guitar lines. The arrangements are still complex, and there are plenty of progressive elements, but the hooks are there. See "The Ballad of Big", "Scenes from a Night's Dream", and "Many Too Many" for proof. And then there's the breakthrough single. "Follow You, Follow Me" closes the album, and became the first hit in America for the band. It's still one of my favorites, and a nice slow & bouncy groove. Nobody does a heavy-delay chucka-chucka guitar groove like Mike Rutherford (see also "The Living Years"). And when it's mixed with patented Phil Collins mellow, shuffle-rock drums, you've got a hit on your hands. Now, let the record show to all of the prog snobs and Phil-haters that "Follow You, Follow Me" was a Mike Rutherford song, and that ATTW3 (the first Genesis album with hooks) was almost entirely written without Phil's input, as he was in Vancouver trying to save his marriage the whole time. This transitional album was a Tony & Mike project, where they tried to bring some balls back to the Wind and Wuthering sound, while writing shorter songs because of the loss of Steve Hackett and his extended solos. I say it worked wonderfully and made for a great album. In retrospect, it functions nicely as a transition between the experimental era and the pop-friendly era. But I don't buy that there was any intention to sell out or make a more accessible album. I just think Tony & Mike were getting better at songwriting, and the band was getting tighter. Suddenly finding themselves as a trio pretty much forced them to be. And Then There Were Three is a VERY good album. ****1/2And here's the official video for "Follow You, Follow Me". Note Mike's green windbreaker and the awesome Vancouver Canucks jersey Tony's rocking.
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Post by callipygias on Nov 30, 2010 19:06:23 GMT -5
If music were weather, this album would be sleet. This is almost enough to make me buy my first Genesis cd. Almost. The title comes from Wuthering Heights, and two song titles are even taken from the last line of that book. Which makes sense, because if music were literature, this album would definitely be a cold and distant British novel. Getting closer....
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 1, 2010 19:37:33 GMT -5
Duke (1980)Duke is a frustrating album. It has some really great moments, but it also has some big problems. Let's start with the good. The Good:"Behind the Lines" is a killer opener. The band opened with it on their 2007 tour, and it blew me away. "Duchess" has a great hook of a chorus melody, and is a powerful song about celebrity. "Misunderstanding", which was the first song Phil ever wrote for Genesis, was a worthy hit, and holds up 30 years later as a great song. "Turn It On Again" was another worthy hit and another great live song, and was written in 13/4. How cool is that? The band took a hiatus between ATTW3 and Duke so Phil could try to save his marriage (he couldn't) and so Tony & Mike could record solo albums. Phil came back with a newfound emotionalism in his voice and in his songwriting. Songs like "Misunderstanding" and the Rutherford-penned "Alone Tonight" showed that the lyrical dimension of the band had changed for good. Gone were the schoolboy/nerdish/Greek/British/fantasy/fairy tale lyrics of earlier albums; now the lyrics were emotional, relational, and much more immediate. I enjoy both styles, but I understand and enjoy the shift. After all, these guys weren't snobby, prep school teenagers anymore. They were husbands and fathers and...well, men. Half of the Duke album was written to be a mega-suite of songs, like "Supper's Ready". In fact, if you play "Behind the Lines", "Duchess", "Guide Vocal", "Turn It On Again", "Duke's Travels", and "Duke's End" in succession, it's a great piece of work. It's unfortunate that they didn't package it like that, but instead broke up the song cycle across the album. The Bad:The worst side effect of Hackett leaving the band? They stopped writing bass lines. Even though Rutherford had been using bass pedals for a few albums already, without another guitarist in the band, it seemed like he focused exclusively on rhythm guitar and put the bass away for good. This really affected the band's output. Phil & Mike weren't throwing down complicated, polyrhythmic fills together anymore. Instead, Phil was booming on 2 and 4, the bass became a pedal playing 16 measures on one note, and Mike was quietly noodling while Tony Banks took over playing the chord progressions. More than Phil's vocals, this was the change in the band's sound that lost their prog cred with me. A lot of the songs seem half-written. "Duchess" has a great chorus, but hardly any verse. Ditto "Man of Our Times". Ditto "Alone Tonight". The last 2 minutes of "Cul-De-Sac" are outstanding. The first 3 minutes? Not so much. Then there are the songs that are just weak, like "Heathaze" and "Please Don't Ask". Even the great songs "Duchess" and "Duke's Travels" have intros that are interminable. When I listen to the album as a whole, I can't get past the feeling that they needed an editor. The album needs to be 3 songs shorter, and the keepers needed another hour in the oven. The Ugly:The mix hurts. I have never liked the mix on Duke or Abacab. It's painful to listen to for very long. The drums overpower everything (and I'm one who loves drums high in the mix). Banks's synth sounds are so loaded with treble that they drown out any melody anywhere else. As I mentioned, the bass lines are non-existent and the one-note pedals just bore into your brain. On the slower songs, Rutherford runs his guitar through a cheesy chorus effect that just sounds like plastic. When I listen to great songs like "Duchess" or "Man of Our Time" or "Alone Tonight", all I can think about is how good those songs should sound instead of how they do sound. Critics peg Duke as the album when Genesis fully embraced their pop side and finally buried their prog side. If that's true, it had nothing to do with Phil's voice or his soon-to-explode solo career. It had everything to do with where they all were as songwriters, how they mixed the album, and how they played without a lead guitarist. Duke has its high points, and they are memorable. But better to experience them on a greatest hits package than to absorb this frustrating and messy album. ***1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 2, 2010 12:48:54 GMT -5
Abacab (1981)I started these reviews with the idea that the story of Genesis is the story of MST. After Joel/Gabriel left, the quality didn't diminish nearly as much as people expected when Mike/Collins took over (seasons 5-6= A Trick of the Tail & Wind & Wuthering). Then Frank/Hackett left, leaving an odd, but still great, transitional phase (season 7= And Then There Were Three). Finally, the remaining team found their feet again and locked into a new groove; meaning the '80s era Genesis is the Sci-Fi era of MST, complete with its aficionados and critics. While listening to Abacab, I tried a thought experiment. What if this were Genesis's first album? What if they burst on the scene with the title track? Or "No Reply At All"? Or "Keep it Dark"? I can't imagine a single person would have said, "Boy, these guys are super cheesy sell-outs." I think the overwhelming response would have been, "Who are these guys who have such great hooks with such intricate musicianship?" No one, after watching "Puma Man" as their first episode, would say how the show wasn't as good without Trace. They all say, "What is this awesome show?!? I have to watch more!" Seriously, go back and listen to "No Reply at All". At the time, Genesis fans were apoplectic over the use of a horn section (Earth, Wind, and Fire in MY Genesis?! How dare they!) . But I think it's a tremendous piece of musicianship. Listen to Banks's overlapping keyboard riff. Or Rutherford's amazing and melodic bass line. It's just sick. That they made such a difficult song such a catchy song is something I find very impressive. Like Duke, Abacab is maddeningly inconsistent. It has some great songs ("No Reply at All", "Keep It Dark", "Dodo/Lurker", "Man on the Corner"). It has some passable filler ("Like It Or Not", "Another Record"). And it has the all-time lowest moment and worst song in their career ("Who Dunnit?"). The title track is a standard on classic rock radio, and it has some impressive moments. However, I find it unlistenable because of the aforementioned one-note bass pedal problem. It's like David Lee Roth's awful howl/scream. You can enjoy Van Halen for years and not notice it. But once you know it's there, you can't NOT notice it. Every time I listen to the song, "Abacab", the fact that there's no bass line and that the pedal tone never changes grates on me like nothing else. Which stinks because I used to really like the song. The low moments notwithstanding, Abacab is a decent album. The mix is an improvement on Duke, and they've reined in the extraneous jamming. Overall, it's a nice stepping stone to the upcoming albums which put Genesis over the top as an amazing radio rock band. ***1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 4, 2010 0:31:24 GMT -5
Genesis (1983)Even though the band and the fans refer to this as the "Mama" album, it was officially self-titled to signify that all three guys wrote all of the songs together. Which is odd, because most people think that by this point, Phil Collins had taken over the band and single-handedly led them into the promised land of big bucks, huge audiences, and insipid pabulum masquerading as music. But that was not the case. In Phil's own words, " You try telling Tony Banks to play something he doesn't want to play. Good luck." The accusation that Phil's solo sound altered the Genesis sound has some merit, but not for the reason you think. In between Abacab and Genesis, Phil hit it big with two solo albums and the huge singles, "In The Air Tonight" and "You Can't Hurry Love". He had also played drums on his old friend Peter Gabriel's third solo album, working with an up-and-coming engineer named Hugh Padgham. Padgham, while experimenting with microphones and studio feedback, stumbled upon a new effect for Phil's drums -- a heavy noise gate effect. It gave a huge reverb to the snare and toms, which was suddenly cut off before the natural decay. It became Phil's signature drum sound, and became an industry standard in the '80s. Guess who produced Genesis? That's right, Hugh Padgham. He also worked with The Police, David Bowie, and The Fixx. So he knew how to get a talented band to sound good on the radio. Is that why "Mama" (the song) sounds so much like "In The Air Tonight"? Maybe. He had as much to do with the sound similarities between Phil's solo work and Genesis as Phil did. He deserves a lot credit/blame for the '80s Genesis sound. And I choose credit. I love the '80s Genesis sound. I loved '80s radio. My musical tastes are exceedingly diverse, but I cut my musical teeth listening to Z-95 and B-96 on my radio dial in the suburbs of Chicago between 1982 and 1987. You never forget your formative years. The very first "favorite song" I ever had was "That's All". I was 8 years old and had just received a Walkman as a birthday present. I heard the song and the world changed. I grabbed my sister's boom box -- the kind that could tape songs from the radio as they played-- and waited for the DJ to spin it again, with my fingers hovering over the "REC" button. "That's All" was the very first song I had my very own recording of, to play over and over again at my leisure. Even listening to it today, I'm amazed. Although the piano drives the song, it is so understated and quiet that the mood stays mellow. Phil, one of the world's best drummers ever, spends half the song just hitting the hi-hat on the off beats. The melody is perfect, the guitar accents are perfect, and the solos are perfect. The B-Section ("I could leave, but I won't go...") always makes me happy. It's what I call an "Antenna Song"; a song that exists somewhere up in the universe that simply had to be written (like "Yesterday" or "Love Shack"). Genesis just got their antenna up first. The rest of the album is also awesome. "Mama" is the polar opposite of "That's All". It's dark, brooding, atmospheric, and intense. The "Home By The Sea" suite is a fan favorite "long song", and even better live. "Takin' It All Too Hard" is an underrated and stellar ballad, far better than their later ballad hits. "Illegal Alien" and "Just a Job To Do" are great rockers with nice riffs and fun vocal tracks. The album closes out with two of my favorite Genesis songs, "Silver Rainbow" and "It's Gonna Get Better". They're both laid back and relaxing, but still quite interesting musically. Genesis isn't the band's most impressive album, nor is it their most well-known. It's simply the one that makes me feel the best when I listen to it. From the haunting opening of "Mama" to the uplifting conclusion of "It's Gonna Get Better", there's no filler, and there are no jarring moments that ruin the flow. One of the best albums of the '80s or any decade. *****
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Post by Blue Raja on Dec 4, 2010 12:12:07 GMT -5
As a big Genesis-world fan (including Banks, Mike + The Mechanics, Phil, etc.), I'm really enjoying what you're doing here, Atari. Some of the stuff I wholeheartedly agree (regarding Lamb's unevenness, England's being the best of the Gabriel era) and disagree a bit (I've always really liked "Please Don't Ask", one of their best ballads in my opinion!), but that's the best part of the Genesis catalogue - plenty in there for all to enjoy to some degree. I eagerly look forward to the rest of your analysis. All I ask is that you please go easy on "Calling All Stations" - I happen to like that album a lot, and I hear enough negativity about it as is.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 5, 2010 14:39:33 GMT -5
Thanks, Raja. You're right about the diversity in their catalog. I was in the car with Mrs. Atari last night, listening to Invisible Touch, since that's the next review. She mentioned that "a little Genesis goes a long way" (meaning their synth-y '80s pop). So I turned over to "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" on my iPod, and she LOVED it.
There really is something for everybody in their history.
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Post by Blue Raja on Dec 5, 2010 14:50:02 GMT -5
Thanks, Raja. You're right about the diversity in their catalog. I was in the car with Mrs. Atari last night, listening to Invisible Touch, since that's the next review. She mentioned that "a little Genesis goes a long way" (meaning their synth-y '80s pop). So I turned over to "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" on my iPod, and she LOVED it. There really is something for everybody in their history. You're quite welcome - and just so you know, I enjoy both Invisible Touch (the album - it was my first!) AND "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" (one of my favorites from the Gabriel era). Me, I'm just glad that a reviewer (in this case, you) can enjoy both the proggyness AND the pop stuff with equal appreciation. So often I hear people seeming to cling to one or the other.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 5, 2010 15:37:17 GMT -5
Invisible Touch (1986)In all of the reviews so far, I have been making the case that Phil Collins is not to blame for the changes in Genesis's sound. Anyone who believes that is just flat out wrong. It was a group effort, made up of many small changes. But now, I'm going to take a different angle. Let's say Phil is to blame; and that with his use of drum machines, a push towards simpler songs, and his runaway solo success, he made Genesis into an '80s pop radio behemoth, abandoning their former days of complex, deep rock for bigger audiences and more money. Explain to me how that's such a bad thing? I like Phil's solo stuff. He wrote some great songs, and was a powerful force in some amazing music of my childhood. "Against All Odds"? "Take Me Home"? "Don't Lose My Number"? There is nothing wrong with those tracks, and a whole lot that's right. He also worked on Peter Gabriel's solo stuff, produced and played on a couple of huge hits for Frida (from ABBA) and Howard Jones. At the same time, Mike Rutherford was hitting it out of the park with The Mechanics on hits like "All I Need is a Miracle" and "Silent Running"- both OUTSTANDING songs. With that as a backdrop, it should come as no surprise that I love Invisible Touch. 8 songs on the album, 5 of them made the Billboard top 10. It stayed on the charts for 96 weeks, went 6-times platinum in the U.S., and sold 15 million copies worldwide. A bona fide classic. The hits are hits for a reason. "Invisible Touch", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", and "Land of Confusion" are required for any '80s mix. (Especially "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", which never gets old for me.) "In Too Deep" and "Throwing It All Away" aren't as good as other ballads in their catalog, but they're instantly recognizable. There's nothing in here to be ashamed of, and a lot to enjoy. The three non-hits are also valuable. "Anything She Does" is very fun, and a great driving song. It could easily have been just as big a hit as the others. "The Brazilian" is a nice atmospheric instrumental, but loses some points for being too electronic sounding and synth heavy. Then there's "Domino". Anyone who thinks that Genesis went soft and lost their progressive edge on this album really needs to listen to "Domino". It's one of the longer songs in their career (10:45), and an amazing ride through a great story about the pointlessness of violence. It's some of their best lyrics and most interesting music since the Gabriel days. Seeing it live is an experience not to be missed. When Phil starts singing about children playing with boats in a river of blood, well...that's pretty messed up. When he hits the climax of, "there's nothing you can do when you're next in line", it's transcendent. One of my all-time favorites. Yes, Invisible Touch is a product of its time, but I loved the time, and I love the product. It didn't sell 15 million copies because it sucks. ****1/2
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Post by Blue Raja on Dec 5, 2010 18:23:49 GMT -5
Arguably your best review yet, though maybe I feel that way because it reflects my view of the album (and people's unique views towards Phil) almost exactly.
(The only difference I can find is I think I may enjoy "The Brazilian" a little more than you, and "Tonight Tonight Tonight" a hair less ;D)
As an aside, the instrumental "Do The Neurotic" from these sessions is arguably my favorite instrumental song they ever did. It's crazy, dynamic, in your face, and I love every second of it. I have no clue why it didn't make the main album...
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 6, 2010 12:22:14 GMT -5
We Can't Dance (1991)I've really enjoyed this process, and with each album, I've found new things to love. But I don't think I enjoyed rediscovering any album as much as We Can't Dance. I forgot how much it was a soundtrack to my high school days. By 1991, Genesis didn't need to impress anyone anymore. Not the record company, not the prog nerds, not the top-40 crowd. They didn't need the money, and they didn't need the fame. They had 20+years of experience and quality under their belts. As a result, there is a relaxed confidence on We Can't Dance. All of the songs are tight, all of the playing is crisp, and the mix is perfect. There's nothing too showy or serious, but nothing too loose or messy either. It's a professional, classy, and high-quality album. "No Son of Mine" is one of my favorite songs they ever did, played with passion, sung with power, and based on a behind-the-beat groove that lays back perfectly. "Jesus, He Knows Me" and "I Can't Dance" were other hits, both with silly videos showing the irreverent side the band always had. The former is a far better song than the latter, but I always enjoy when a band sounds like they're having fun. There are probably two or three too many songs here; I wouldn't have missed "Way of the World" or "Tell Me Why" or "Hold on My Heart" or "Since I Lost You". It's not that they're bad songs ("Hold on My Heart" was a huge hit, and "Since I Lost You" was written for Eric Clapton's son), I just wouldn't have missed them; and the album would have been tighter without them. The long songs on this album are amazing. "Driving the Last Spike" is so well written, it doesn't feel like a ten-minute song. "Dreaming While You Sleep" is the type of song only Genesis could pull off. It's a story of a hit-and-run driver living with the guilt of his crime while his victim lies in a coma. The main riff is on a marimba. Awesome. The jam on the second half of "Living Forever" is as impressive as any of the '70s output. "Fading Lights", the final song these three amazing musicians left us with, is a flawless send-off. It's a slow burn that builds into an avalanche of drum fills underneath a classic Tony Banks solo, then fades out quietly into the distance. The perfect bow on the career. Like 1983's self-titled album, this is one that I enjoy far more than most Genesis fans. So I rate it higher than it probably deserves. But too bad; it's my review. As I said before, I think the phrase, "relaxed confidence" best describes this album. The production, songwriting, performance, and overall feel of the album is relaxed and confident. And that makes for some damn fine listening. *****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 28, 2010 15:37:38 GMT -5
Calling All Stations (1997)I've been asked to be kind to this album, but I just can't. Calling All Stations was an ill-advised mistake of an album. Even Ray Wilson thinks so. Who's Ray Wilson, you ask? Exactly. Wilson was hired to replace the departed Phil Collins; Rutherford and Banks thought they could weather one more departure of a long-time member, as they had with Phillips, Gabriel, and Hackett. They were wrong. Wilson, who has some singing chops, was hired because he sounded darker and more like Gabriel, and the boys wanted to go back to some of the intricate progressive earlier sound. There were two problems with this: Wilson doesn't sound anything like Gabriel, and the boys wrote some of the least complex songs in their career. The album starts off with the title track, which is mildly interesting, but has absolutely no chorus. None. It also begins with a HUGE rip-off of the first notes on "Zoo Station" from U2's Achtung Baby. Maybe Genesis was trying to make their Achtung Baby, but instead they made Verhalten Baby. The second track, "Congo" is decent and was a decent hit. When the best track on the album is best described as "decent", you can start to get the picture. Then there's "Shipwrecked", which is a song so by-the-numbers and cliched, they ought to be embarrassed. All of the songs are completely devoid of character. Wilson's singing comes across as mediocre, but mainly because the songs are dry and hook-less. The whole thing just sounds bland and forgettable. They brought in two drummers to replace Phil, and their playing styles are so disparate that it's jarring to go from one song to the next. Why they couldn't have just hired the touring guys (Steurmer and Thompson) they'd played with for decades is beyond me. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part: every song fades out. The fade out is usually a recording studio cop out. When it works, it's done over a repeated chorus or some jamming or vocal riffing. On this album, the fade outs are during verse melodies. Wilson will be singing a new lyric in the song, and it'll...just...fade...out. Talk about anti-climactic. Even if the song was good (and most of them aren't), it would leave the listener with a bad aftertaste. The overall sound is indicative of the time. Sonically, and arrangement-wise, it sounds like a Seal album, or The Wallflowers, or any number of dark, late-'90s, corporate mood rock. Like Invisible Touch, Calling All Stations is a product of its time. Unfortunately, the late '90s was an awful time for popular music. *
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