Something Completely Different

Trollheart's Comprehensive Guide to
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If there's one progressive rock band who can be said to have failed entirely to move with the times as the seventies became the eighties and then the nineties, it would have to be Emerson, Lake and Palmer, or ELP. One of a number of bands who were accused of being overblown, pompous and self-indulgent at the end of the seventies - something which is hard to defend or deny, even with my own favourite prog bands - ELP were synonymous with big light shows, long, convoluted music suites, and stagecraft. Whether this took away from or enhanced their music, whether you believe the antics of Keith Emerson and his mates detracted from music that was a little stale and high-brow, or not, is up to you. Personally, I never liked them, but that has nothing to do with this piece. This is about history.

And the history of ELP shows that while two of them did move with the times - Greg Lake joining King Crimson and Carl Palmer getting involved with supergroup Asia, Emerson ended up committing suicide. He had attempted to revive ELP in 1986, replacing Carl Palmer with Cozy Powell, but they only had one album, and again, while I can't speak on Emerson as I don't know that much about him, it seems to me he never quite managed to throw off the excesses of progressive rock he had typified in the 1970s, and was not really able to cope with the changing attitudes towards music as the world headed towards a new millennium.

Another giant of the prog scene, Yes, did much better. Despite changing their sound (mostly by engaging ex-Buggles producer Trevor Horn in the 1980s) they more or less held on to their core musical identity, and even now release albums that perhaps are not a million miles away from classics such as Close to the Edge or Fragile, though I believe they did have the sense, perhaps, to leave the overblown excess of double albums like Tales of Topographic Oceans back in the seventies where they belonged.

The third band, also godfathers of progressive rock, and one of the earlier bands on the scene, who actually helped create the scene, did, in my opinion, worse. Though lauded, correctly, as prog rock titans, Genesis began to change their sound around the 1980s, with, for me at any rate, their last really prog album being that year's Duke. A year later, bandleader, singer and drummer Phil Collins embarked on a solo career, and with his music (like, it must be said, that of previous founder and bandmate also gone solo Peter Gabriel) much different to the sort of thing he had been playing with Genesis, his love for salsa, jazz and brass all seems to have leaked into Genesis's next album, and for me that was where the rot set in.

From 1981's Abacab on, it's a totally different story. You can almost say that as the last notes of Tony Bank's galloping synth runs faded on "Duke's End" to the explosive, electronic drum-machine opening of "Abacab", the line was clearly marked, for me, where the change occurs. Though the album struggled to maintain a little of their prog rock roots, it is, for me, a pop album, or at least a pop/rock one. This in itself is evident in its ability to introduce new fans to the band. Although Genesis had been really, I suppose, reinventing themselves since 1978's ... And Then There Were Three, with the departure of guitarist Steve Hackett and with him those classically-influenced and more pastoral guitar passages, Genesis had been having hits. That album was not exactly a blockbuster but they did get a top ten hit for the first time in "Follow You, Follow Me", itself a really atypical song for the band, an out-and-out love song, not something they had been known for, and which probably gained them a lot more female fans, possibly, than they had had prior.

But the main metric here was not in the UK, but three thousand miles over the great big ocean, where Genesis had been steadily plugging away to crack the US charts. Without question, they were already big there by the mid-seventies, as any of their tours will attest to. But even classic albums such as Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, A Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering had failed to set the Billboard Hot 100 alight, their best shot being the last-mentioned, which got them to number 26. But after that, there is evidence of a slow but  steady rise up the chart, as the next album got them to 14, then Duke improved on this, taking them almost into the top ten for the first time ever, peaking at number 11, while the newer, poppier sound of Abacab evidently hit the right note (pun intended: what do you mean, what pun?) and took them to number 7, a slight dip for the next, self-titled album, though it remained within the top ten at number 9, and then all bets were off as Invisible Touch not only gave Genesis their first ever top three album in the US but also their only ever number one single there with the title track.

At this point, just in passing, I should note that all albums from Duke to We Can't Dance had sat comfortably atop the UK charts, but America is where the money is, and finally, after a decade of really doing nothing chartwise with seven* albums, Genesis had made it and were big in America. However there was of course a cost for this. With even fellow prog giant Yes's latest albums not making it that far chartwise in the States, it was clear that the only reason Genesis had finally made it was by tailoring their music to an American market, and the American market did not want songs of ten minutes or more duration, long keyboard solos, introspective guitar etudes, esoteric lyrics, concept albums or music suites. In other words, America - at least, the American charts - did not want progressive rock.

So, to my mind, whether you can accuse Genesis of selling out (England by the Pound? Sorry) or not - and I do - they certainly knew which way the wind was blowing and they tacked into it, dumping overboard any unwanted ballast so they could sail more easily towards the promised coast of America and success in the US. Whatever I think of that, it would have to be said that of at least the three big prog acts mentioned, they were the one that was best able to read the signs and move with the changing times. Did they betray their prog rock roots and their fans? Personally, I say yes, but can I blame them? When you look at the lifestyles of the three remaining members, I guess not. It's easy to yell "sell-out!" when you're living on the dole and wondering how to pay the electricity bill.

Whatever my feelings about how they changed, Genesis have always been my number one favourite band, and even though they are now broken up and left, to me, a poor swan song not worthy of their legacy, I'll always love them. In this thread I'll be doing more or less what I am in the Iron Maiden one, selecting tracks at random and telling you about them. I will probably also do some album reviews, and sure, as always, we'll see how it goes. If you're a fan, and have a particular track you'd like me to review, go for it.

* As always, I tend not to include the debut album, From Genesis to Revelation, as it is so different to how their music would go and the sound they would become known for, but I'm aware many people do. Whichever stance you take is up to you.

FYI: "Era" refers to one of three, as follows:

Era 1: From Genesis to Revelation, Trespass, Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Era 2: A Trick of the Tail, Wind and Wuthering, ... And Then There Were Three, Duke.

Era 3: Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance, Calling All Stations.

"Written by" refers more or less to who wrote the lyric, as almost every Genesis song was a collaboration in terms of the music.


So what's first up on the random-o-meter? This

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Track title: "I Can't Dance"
Album: We Can't Dance
Era: 3
Year: 1991
Written by: Phil Collins
Subject: Fuck knows. Embarrassment? Being out of step?
Type: Slowish-paced pop song, mostly guitar driven. Almost a slow funk, you might say. I said FUNK!
Length: 4:04
Familiar? Yeah, it was a single and has a stupid annoying video
Rating:  4/10 (It should be noted that my ratings here are personal. They don't just take into account how good - or bad - a song is, but how far it is from what I think of as a "proper" Genesis track. So even if you love, say "Invisible Touch", or "Abacab", you'll find me disparaging it here with a poor rating. It is, in this case, relative.

Essentially the title track from their 1991 album We Can't Dance, I suppose I can't fault Genesis too much for taking a wry and humorous look at themselves, if that's what they're doing here. They may have been surprised how, after struggling for ten years to break the US market they were suddenly a hot property, and wondered how a song like this would have fit on an album like, say, A Trick of the Tail. It wouldn't' have, of course. Taken on its own merits, it's not a bad song I guess. Nice sharp guitar, bouncy bass, funny self-deprecating (I said DEPRECATING! What's wrong with you people??) lyric which, to be fair, says little and goes nowhere, but the chart-buying public loved it. Says a lot really. Actually went to number 7 both sides of the water, though the Dutch and the Belgians loved it so much they pushed it right to the top.

Look, there are far, far better tracks on this album, and to me We Can't Dance treads a line between almost, but not quite, returning to the Genesis of old, with songs like "Driving the Last Spike", "No Son of Mine", "Since I Lost You" and the superlative closer, "Fading Lights". Then again, there are the likes of "Tell Me Why", "Jesus He Knows Me" and this one, which push the album right back down into that familiar pop/rock territory Genesis were happily plundering in the cause of album sales. Hey, I suppose at least it isn't "Illegal Alien!"

Nice. I got sunshine in my stomach, like I just rocked my baby to sleep. I shall follow this thread and add uninvited opinions and comments if it's all the same to you  :D

Genesis is one of my favorite bands as well. Their run from 1970 to 1976 is such a banger string of records. I honestly struggle with the albums after Hackett's departure, I think they lost a lot more of what I loved about them after he left than when Gabriel left.

But I will also be following this thread, SCD could always use more prog.

Glad to have you both along!
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Track title: "Riding the Scree"
Album: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Era: 1
Year: 1974
Written by: Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford (this is mostly an instrumental) with lyric by Peter Gabriel
Subject: Part of the journey of Rael, hero of the concept. Essentially it details Rael's pursuit of his, um, junk after a raven has stolen it and dropped it in the river. Hey look, don't blame me! I didn't write this!
Type: Fast-paced piece, mostly instrumental, to represent the rushing of the river as Rael tries to recover his precious package
Length: 4:03
Familiar? Yes
Rating: 5/10 (It's a decent almost-instrumental but there are far better on the album, and being a double one and a concept into the bargain, it does not lack for good musical passages).

Kind of a little difficult to write about this one on its own. As all good Genesis fans know, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was the only concept album they ever recorded, and the last one with founder Peter Gabriel. It was, by all accounts, the strain of creating it and dealing with Gabriel's somewhat dictatorial manner (reminiscent of a former member of Pink Floyd a decade later) that led to the parting of the ways between him and the band. A strange album (review surely at some point), it's characterised by odd little songs which seem to make not too much sense, and is the story of the main character's journey to, I don't know, literally find himself? There has been a lot written about it, and I'm not going to go into all that now.

"Riding the Scree" comes near the climax of the album, third-last track on it, and catalogues Rael's frantic attempts to recover his... well, I've explained already haven't I? Generally this is the, if you will, car chase in the movie, and leads to a, well, crazy ending. But it features Tony's warbling, almost video-game-like synths all over it, with some sighing lower synths and a nice line in sharp guitar from Mike, while Phil keeps the beat faithfully. The vocal coming in around the last minute initially was a surprise to me, as I assumed this was a full instrumental.

It retreads some of the music themes that have run through the album, and there's no question of you thinking, were this the first time you heard it, that this is anything other than progressive rock. I wouldn't go far as to say it's Genesis at their best, but it certainly is the band at their most recognisable, a million miles away from anything like "That's All" or "Invisible Touch". It also uses some of the kind of phased vocal that Gabriel uses when Rael is in the Colony of Slippermen. A very recognisable fanfare just there at the end and then it just sort of drifts lazily away to its fade-out end on Tony's burbling synth and Phil's measured drumbeats. There's even a nice sort of precursor to "Duchess" off the later album Duke.

I love Banks' bloopy synths on that track so much.

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All right, I got me a lot of work to do. Time to kick some life back into this thread!
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Track title: "Lilywhite Lilith"
Album: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Era: 1
Year: 1974
Written by: Peter Gabriel
Subject: The appearance of the eponymous woman, who leads Rael through the Chamber of 32 Doors to the one that leads out. Well, not quite.
Type: Hard rocker, one of the rockiest tracks on the album bar "Back in NYC".
Length: 2:50
Familiar? Yes
Rating:  3/10

So much for random-ness! Two tracks from the same album, one after the other! (Yes, yes! Five months apart I know!) Hey, that's the way the dice fall I guess. Another, as I say, from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, "Lilywhite Lilith" follows on from the despair of the previous track, where Rael has found himself in a chamber of many doors (32 in fact) which all seem to bring him back to where he came from. Out of the crowd steps this woman, who is blind, but who can, she says, feel the breeze coming from the door that leads out. They strike a bargain, and holding onto Rael's arm as she sniffs out the right door, they make it out of the chamber.

For Genesis, certainly at the time, it's a real departure. Known for mostly uptempo but restrained prog rock and pastoral ballads, they had branched out with tracks like "The Battle of Epping Forest" on Selling England by the Pound and "The Knife" on Trespass, but overall Genesis were not known as a rock band. Other than, as mentioned, the quite manic "Back in NYC", this is the heaviest track on the album, and certainly allows Mike Rutherford his head as he blasts away on those frets. Again, it's not one of my favourite tracks on the album, but they all make up the story and have to be taken in that context. In fairness, for a track that runs for less than three minutes it does a good job of slowing down in the last and changing the sound entirely.

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Track title: "Calling All Stations"
Album: Calling All Stations
Era: 3
Year: 1997
Written by: Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford
Subject: Dunno. Loneliness? Feeling old?
Type: Mid-paced hard rocker
Length: 5:43
Familiar? Yes, one of the few on the album I actually like
Rating: 6/10

I think everyone probably thought it was a bad idea to replace Phil Collins, or try to, and that view was confirmed when this ended up being, not only Genesis's last album, but also their least successful, stateside,  since Selling England by the Pound, not even breaking the top 40 and becoming the first of their albums since Wind and Wuthering not to achieve Platinum status. Of course, the UK still loved Genesis, and it got to number 2 there, but that still makes it the first of their albums since Duke not to get to the number one spot at home. I don't necessarily have a problem with Ray Wilson; I just don't think anyone should have tried to fill Collins' shoes. Might have been better to have left it at that.

That said, this isn't a terrible track, and at least they had the sense to open the album with it. Good, powerful buzzing guitars from Rutherford punch their way out as the song begins, and Wilson's voice is pleasant and a little compelling, though he's no Phil of course. There's some decent guitar solos from Mike, not really something you tended to hear too much on previous albums, and Tony's haunting synths make their presence felt as always. I have no idea what it's about, but I do wonder is it Genesis desperately asking their fans not to abandon them after the departure of the man behind the mike and drum seat?

To be fair, I could possibly see this on the 1983 album, maybe We Can't Dance, but it's not a Genesis song, and sadly, the rest of the album is so littered with sub-par material - the odd track excepted - that I never listen to it anymore. If I do, however, I suppose it's some sort of praise to say that this is one of the few I do tolerate.

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Track title: "The Return of the Giant Hogweed"
Album: Nursery Cryme
Era: 1
Year: 1971
Written by: Peter Gabriel
Subject: A voracious strain of plant life threatens mankind
Type: Bouncy synth-driven prog epic with multiple changes
Length: 8:04
Familiar? Yes, though not one of my favourites on this album
Rating: 5/10

This is the  Genesis of old, when singles and chart performance and screaming teenage fans were not the things that occupied the minds of the band. Only their second* album, they had already begun to build up a faithful following in Europe, especially in Italy, where RPI (Rock Progresivo Italiano) was emerging around this time, and this album features a total of seven tracks, with two of them over eight minutes long and one clocking in at over ten. This track also displays the sense of humour of the band, as Gabriel envisages a sort of Victorian "Day of the Triffids", though with the deadly plant being found in Russia, not arriving from space.

It's one of the typical Genesis epics of the time, which, though it's not broken up into suites, does go through a few changes as it progresses. Sorry. Opening on a pretty frenetic guitar line it quickly settles down into a kind of almost doomy marching rhythm, Gabriel at his most manic vocally, Banks' Hammond organ and Mellotron showing the first signs of how important they would become on songs like "Watcher of the Skies" and "Supper's Ready" on the next album. There is, to me anyway, a sort of reflection here of "White Mountain" from the previous album. Tony really enjoys himself here, going wild on the Hammond, and let's be honest, it's quite a coup to be able to turn what is essentially a song about gardening into an apocalyptic tale!

It's really only when I hear songs like this that I bemoan what Genesis later became. As I said in the introduction, they may not be my favourite band, but at least Yes stuck more or less to their guns and didn't bow to the pressure of the commercial charts. Just listen to the sublime piano passage from Tony here, and weep for what was lost. Or something. I love too when Peter goes into the persona of the Giant Hogweed, preparing its followers to overrun the Earth. Class!

Quote from: Trollheart on Mar 02, 2024, 03:15 AM(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/NurseryCryme71.jpg)
Track title: "The Return of the Giant Hogweed"
Album: Nursery Cryme
Era: 1
Year: 1971
Written by: Peter Gabriel
Subject: A voracious strain of plant life threatens mankind
Type: Bouncy synth-driven prog epic with multiple changes
Length: 8:04
Familiar? Yes, though not one of my favourites on this album
Rating: 5/10

This is the  Genesis of old, when singles and chart performance and screaming teenage fans were not the things that occupied the minds of the band. Only their second* album, they had already begun to build up a faithful following in Europe, especially in Italy, where RPI (Rock Progresivo Italiano) was emerging around this time, and this album features a total of seven tracks, with two of them over eight minutes long and one clocking in at over ten. This track also displays the sense of humour of the band, as Gabriel envisages a sort of Victorian "Day of the Triffids", though with the deadly plant being found in Russia, not arriving from space.

It's one of the typical Genesis epics of the time, which, though it's not broken up into suites, does go through a few changes as it progresses. Sorry. Opening on a pretty frenetic guitar line it quickly settles down into a kind of almost doomy marching rhythm, Gabriel at his most manic vocally, Banks' Hammond organ and Mellotron showing the first signs of how important they would become on songs like "Watcher of the Skies" and "Supper's Ready" on the next album. There is, to me anyway, a sort of reflection here of "White Mountain" from the previous album. Tony really enjoys himself here, going wild on the Hammond, and let's be honest, it's quite a coup to be able to turn what is essentially a song about gardening into an apocalyptic tale!

It's really only when I hear songs like this that I bemoan what Genesis later became. As I said in the introduction, they may not be my favourite band, but at least Yes stuck more or less to their guns and didn't bow to the pressure of the commercial charts. Just listen to the sublime piano passage from Tony here, and weep for what was lost. Or something. I love too when Peter goes into the persona of the Giant Hogweed, preparing its followers to overrun the Earth. Class!

Hello! So lovely to see you posting again, I hope you are well.

I definitely hear a lot of some of the directions Genesis would continue further in when I listen to Giant Hogweed. Gabriel gives such a fun performance with his various vocal mannerisms and Banks really does shine on all his parts.

Thanks Lexi! Good to be back.

Unfortunately, that good feeling is lost as...

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Track title: "Small Talk"
Album: Calling All Stations
Era: 3
Year: 1997
Written by: Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Ray Wilson
Subject: Back talk?
Type: Some sort of new-wave/rock/pop hybrid?
Length: 5:07
Familiar? No
Rating: 2/10

God almighty! From the sublime to the bloody awful. As I said already, this album, the last Genesis ever put out, is chock-full of, well now, how can I say this without giving offence? Crap. Chock-full of crap. And this is one of the worst. I mean, how long did they take to write this? Ten minutes? And it took the three of them? Jesus on toast with a boiled eggs and soldiers! Just terrible. Can't say anything more. I look in vain for something positive I can say about it, but from the boring verse to the annoying chorus, the farting guitar line, and the awful lyric, there's just nothing there. Oh and they even rip off the Alan Parsons Project on "Let's Talk About Me" into the bargain. Garbage. Okay, if I must be fair, the fade out ending where Wilson croons, with misplaced optimism, "I'll be alright" is, well, alright. But that's it. He is, of course, wrong, as soon after this he'd be looking for work.

Definitely up (or down) there with "Illegal Alien", "Ballad of Big" and the god-awful "Whodunnit" as one of the very worst Genesis songs ever.

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Track title: "The Brazilian"
Album: Invisible Touch
Era: 3
Year: 1986
Written by: Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins
Subject: N/A
Type: Instrumental
Length: 4:50
Familiar? A little
Rating: 3/10

Okay well if "Riding the Scree" isn't a full instrumental, this is, and in fact since the suites on Duke I think it's safe to say the first such. I once saw a documentary about the making of this album and they clearly had not yet decided what to call this: it held the working title "Monkey/Zulu" - makes about as much sense as "The Brazilian". If it had some (god help us) salsa beats or any sort of Latin flavour, then maybe I could understand it, but as it stands I don't get it. It's not bad as instrumentals go, but it's nothing to write home about really, and as a closer for an album it's hardly what you want to hear. On what was their most commercially successful album, yielding such hits as "Land of Confusion" and the title track, you'd think they would have come up with a better way of finishing it. Poor. Oh, and I see it won a Grammy. What a world!

Ah-ha! Now ye're talkin'!!

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Track title: "White Mountain"
Album: Trespass
Era: 1
Year: 1970
Written by: Peter Gabriel
Subject: A story about wolves
Type: Prog epic
Length: 6:46
Familiar? Very much so; one of my favourite early Genesis songs
Rating: 10/10

If anything typified progressive rock in the seventies, it was fantasy lyrics. Anything from your sword-and-sorcery style tales to fairy stories, mythology or, as in this case, the world seen through the eyes of animals. "White Mountain" tells the story of a wolf who trespasses (!) upon the sacred place of his people and is chased by the pack, who eventually catch  him and kill him. It's probably a stark and quite chilling story for 1970, with the "Summer of Love" just over, and may possibly have been an attempt by the band - by Gabriel anyway, who wrote the lyric - to throw off the cloying, folky, hippy-dippy style of their debut album and show they had, well, teeth.

As a composition it runs really well, Banks' frantic bouncing keyboards chasing the melody across the song, alternating with slow, stately, almost doom-like marching and sombre chords on which John Mayhew thumps out the rhythm somewhat like the drummer on one of those slave galleys. This is, of course, the only Genesis album on which he played the drums, being placed by some guy called Collins for the next one. There's a very spiritual, almost reverent opening to the piece, perhaps nodding to the sacred area the luckless Fang wanders into. I also find it interesting that it's the song on which the album is mentioned, making it I guess the closest this has to a title track.

The song makes good use of flute too, but not the kind of flute I hate, that in-your-face, frenetic, madcap style that some bands use (I'm looking at you, Ian Anderson!) but rather soft and mournful yet with an edge of menace. The meshing of the organ and the guitar works very well too. Then the song ends more or less as it began, a dark, warning humming fading it out. The first (only?) prog rock song to feature a murder, even if it is that of a wolf by a wolf? Whistling at the end is kind of strange; always wondered about that bit. Great song though.

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I did say, didn't I, when I started this thread that it might feature the odd album review? Well if I didn't, I meant to, and it will. Feature the odd album review, that is. Well, more than the odd one, if I'm honest. Back over at the Place That Must Not Be Mentioned I once reviewed their entire discography, so I have album reviews of all Genesis albums cued up, as it were, and ready to go.

But whereas that time I did them in chronological order, in keeping with the random nature of this thread I'm going to select one by sticking a pin in OW! Maybe not so safe a way of choosing an album at random! That HURT! Okay then, I'll roll a dice (or, in actuality, use an RNG) and see what comes up.
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But I'm off for dinner now, so will leave you to wonder and gasp in suspense, trying to imagine which of the 15 albums might come up, and will solve the mystery in an hour or so. What? No, I don't have much in my life, thank you for pointing that out.

At this point, the fine line between Genesis and Phil Collins as a solo artist blurs so much that the penultimate album to feature him could easily in most cases be mistaken as one of his. Bringing much of his r&b and soul influences to many of the tracks, cutting shorter and more commercial songs, with only really Tony Banks trying to keep the longer, more epic tracks in a bid to retain something, anything of the Genesis motif, the thirteenth album was certainly unlucky for some, myself included. I don't hate it, but I see it as the natural progression from Abacab and much of Genesis, to where the band could hardly even be afforded the description progressive rock.

Of course, the continuing new direction increased their popularity, leading Brett Easton Ellis's psychopath killer in his cult novel American Psycho to laud this album as their best (a lot he knew!) and give the band their first ever number one hit single in the US of A., when the title track went to the top. The album itself was another number one in the UK, making it four in a row, while it hit the number three slot in the USA. At this point, certainly from a Stateside point of view, it was fair to say Genesis, the new Genesis, had arrived. But was the old Genesis dead, or were there still a few breaths left in its slowly-dying body as it began to give up the ghost but refused to die without a fight?
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Invisible Touch (1986)


I don't know what an invisible touch is, but she has one, apparently. Or at least, she seems to. After a tour to promote their twelfth album, a third solo effort from Collins, the birth of Mike + The Mechanics to keep Mike Rutherford busy, and an album of soundtracks from Tony Banks imaginatively entitled Soundtracks :rolleyes: Genesis reconvened to record their next album. It was three years on from the release of the self-titled, and they were riding pretty high on the success of singles like "Mama" and "That's All", pulling in new fans while probably ditching older ones. Their next album would capitalise on the success, both of the new Genesis and of Phil Collins's somewhat meteoric rise to solo fame, as his hits easily eclipsed those of his parent band - indeed, he was doing so well on his own that there were whispers that he would not return to the band and that Genesis had split. Perhaps sadly in retrospect, this would not turn out to be the case.

Rattling, tumbling drums power in the title track, with a jangly, poppy guitar from Rutherford and Genesis make no apologies for the new direction they were going in as they open the new album up. And why would they? It got them to number one; who cared about some old stuck-in-the-mud fans who had carried them through the seventies? That was the past, man, and this was the Genesis of the future. Musically, if not actually literally, a rebirth that would see the band move further and further into pop territory until eventually ... Well, more of that to come. Much of this album has been dogged by the accusation that it could really be a Phil Collins solo album, and it's hard to refute that, when you listen to many of the tracks, "Invisible Touch" being a prime example. Again, it's not the Genesis we know, even the Genesis of "That's All" or the terrible "Illegal Alien". It's not even the gentle Genesis of "Follow You Follow Me" or even the somewhat more acerbic but still recognisable Genesis that pushed "Mama" into the charts. All of those were, to one degree or another, possible to tie down as being Genesis songs. But this could have been written and played by anyone from Go West to Duran Duran. There's just nothing in the song that reminds me of old Genesis, and even Banks's synths are snappy rather than sonorous, poppy rather than placid and jumping rather than rippling. The rot has set in.

Do I need to describe the song? You all know it, even those who hate Genesis will have heard it on the radio or TV. It was, after all, at number one so you could hardly avoid it. I feel it's devoid of any real emotion or connection to the band, and if I didn't know better would have thought it could have been written for them, but given Collins's embracing of the worlds of pop, soul and even jazz on his solo albums, it shouldn't really come as too big a surprise. But for me, it was not a pleasant one. Bah, there's not even a bridge! Oh,and let's utilise the most cliched of cliches in pop music, changing the key up one octave for the final chorus. Boo. The overuse of electronic drum machines is also unwelcome, and further evidence if any were needed of their changing musical style.
There is some hope though, as the second track is one of those (almost) old Genesis epics, even if it is basically a love song that runs for nearly nine minutes. It has a spooky intro thanks to Banks's keys and, it has to be admitted, the damn drum machine. One of a perhaps worryingly becoming more common slew of ballads and love songs, "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" was, rather amazingly, released in a very truncated form as a single, getting to number three in the US and 18 here. I haven't heard the single version, but they chopped about fifty percent out of the song, so I assume the best parts were removed, including the instrumental midsection. There are echoes of both "Mama" and "Misunderstanding" here in the lyric, but it is the powerful instrumental midsection that really makes the song for me, leading us almost back down the path and over the garden wall (sorry) to a time when Genesis made superb, intricate, thoughtful music and the word "pop" was a bad one.

It can't be argued of course that the instrumental part is what extends the song to its somewhat overlong eight minutes fifty-two seconds, as it runs for more than three minutes, but I still can't really envision the shorter version being as good. Anyway, such thoughts are soon brushed aside as we have bigger problems. "Land of Confusion" carries us kicking and screaming through the Chamber of 32 Doors and back to the world of pop, where yet another hit single is waiting. With a very clever video made by those Spitting Image people, it's a song that really suffered from being upstaged by its video. I mean, it's okay, but it's nothing terribly special. At least Rutherford gets to take control, banging out the riffs like there's no tomorrow, while the boys enjoy some close-harmony backing vocals. Again, I'm sure you know the song; it, or at least its video, was on constant rotation on the likes of MTV throughout 1986. Another big hit (14 in the UK and 4 in the US), I suppose it showed if nothing else that there would be no backdown from Genesis now. This album was cementing their place as a true pop band with bona fide hits, and opening their music to a much wider audience, and they were never going back to Broadway. The Lamb had lain down for the last time.

In essence, a kind of political song whose message I feel was lost in the comic video, but it certainly did the business for them, as did the next one, the fourth single and one of the three ballads on the album. "In Too Deep" is, to be fair, a beautiful song but it smacks of Phil Collins solo material, and hovers close to songs like "One More Night", "Take Me Home" and "Separate Lives". The ticking drum machine is right out of "Thru These Walls" and "In the Air Tonight", although in fairness Banks plays some gorgeous piano and orchestral synth, and Collins's vocal is smooth, though at this point I had had enough of him, having been subjected to No Jacket Required and its various singles for way too long. I really don't want to talk about "Anything She Does". It's just awful, and sounds like it was thrown together in a few minutes, perhaps as a last-minute filler, but I don't think it was. It's loud, it's fast, it's sort of abrasive and it has a kind of Latin feel to it, so it is different, but maybe the trouble is that it's too different. It's like something off a Ricky Martin album, not that I'd know what that sounds like. It's salsa, soul, rock and roll, just doesn't work for me, especially the frenetic chorus. Meh. Sounds like trumpets in there again, though it could be synthesised. Oh, and the main melody for the verses is ripped off from "Illegal Alien", just to cap it off. :rolleyes:

That could have been it for me, but then we get "Domino", one more big epic that actually nods much more to the Genesis of yesteryear than "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" did. With a nice slow jangly guitar and hooting synth it is split into two sections, the first, "In the Glow of the Light", a slow, moody piece run mostly on dark synth with some powerful percussion and orchestral hits. The whole thing runs for almost eleven minutes, which is something of a joy for old Genesis fans like me, and it really is a standout on the album. There's a nod back to "Undertow" when Collins snarls "Sheets of double glazing help to keep outside the night" and the first part is quite sombre and bitter, then in the second part, "The Last Domino", it kicks into life with a galloping beat, somewhat a very distant cousin of the "Home By the Sea/ Second Home By the Sea" model, as well as nods to "Duke's Travels". Banks excels on the keys here, driving the song forward, in both parts, and effectively bridging the two as his morose, crying synth becomes a trumpeting, rocketing one, the whole tempo picking up as it reaches the fourth minute and launches into the second part.
With still ominous but faster synth Banks hammers along, grabbing elements from older songs as he goes, Rutherford painting the edges with superb guitar flourishes, Collins's voice getting more urgent and passionate. The desire for horror/outrage is encapsulated in the lines "Well you never did see/ Such a terrible thing/ As you seen last night on the TV/ Maybe if we're lucky they'll show it again/ Such a terrible thing to see!" with the very antithesis of "Blood on the Rooftops" from Wind and Wuthering. The beat gets stronger, the rhythm harder and it really starts to rock along in the seventh minute, as the band get into their stride. Why isn't the rest of the album like this?

But it isn't. There's another soppy love ballad to almost close out the album, and though "Throwing it All Away" is a decent song, it's kind of almost an amalgam of "In Too Deep" and "Taking it All Too Hard" from the previous album. Not surprisingly at this point, it too was a big hit stateside when released as a single. I wonder what they would have made of "Domino"? :rolleyes: Oh, I see it charted! Even though not released as a single. Interesting. And it's about the war that was raging in Lebanon at the time. Well, that just throws into sharper relief the (sorry) throwaway nature of this song, which is nothing more or less than a simple pop ballad. Weirdly, though written by Rutherford, where I think a guitar solo would have fit, they decide instead to sing the chorus in a round of "Woo-ooh-ooh-ohh"s. We end then on an instrumental, and while it's good it's a little tacked on, with a very industrial/electronic feel to it. "The Brazilian"? Really? Why? Then again, that's a question I could ask about this whole album.

TRACK LISTING

Invisible Touch
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
Land of Confusion
In Too Deep
Anything She Does
Domino
(i) In the Glow of the Light
(ii) The Last Domino
Throwing it All Away
The Brazilian

At the time, I desperately tried to like this album, because who wants to admit his heroes have failed him, right? But after suffering through Abacab and Genesis I was not in any mood to be forgiving, and to retain me as a fan they would have to have pulled something major out of the hat. They didn't. With the exception of maybe two tracks, this is a pop album, no more and no less, and worse, a badly-disguised Phil Collins solo album. I had already bought No Jacket Required - I didn't need an extension of that.

Luckily for me, Genesis made one final rally before they more or less called it a day, coming back with an album that, while it never quite returned them to the glory days of their progressive rock zenith, at least tried a lot harder than this wannabe-Collins effort. Invisible touch, eh? Touch this. :rolleyes:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/Foxtrot72.jpg)
Track title: "Horizons"
Album: Foxtrot
Era: 1
Year: 1972
Written by: Steve Hackett
Subject: N/A
Type:  Instrumental
Length: 1:41
Familiar? Very; I love this little piece
Rating: 10/10

How do you give top marks to an instrumental that lasts less than two minutes? When it's Steve Hackett giving an understated masterclass as to how brevity can often be the mother of quality, how can I do otherwise? Probably (though I'd have to check; I think I'm right though) the shortest ever Genesis track, "Horizons" dazzles because of not only how simple it is, but how heartfelt it is. I find it impossible to listen to this tiny opus without picturing Steve sitting on a stool, eyes closed, guitar nestled into his chest, lost in the beauty of his composition. To say it transports you to another realm for one minute and forty-one seconds is an understatement. It's just pure joy and beauty, a master guitarist, a master composer at the very peak of his art, needing no more and no less time to express what a virtuoso he is.

Short as it is, there are no tricks, no gimmicks, no special sounds used. It's almost the same all through its run, and that's what makes it so special. Hackett is not trying to impress here, or, as I've said about other bands and players down the years, show off or draw attention to how clever he is. He's playing this for the sheer love of music, and the juxtaposing of the track, just before the epic "Supper's Ready", their longest ever composition by some way, is surely intentional. Not quite the calm before the storm, but a small soft breather, an interlude, an intake of breath before the suite gets going. Just quite simply beautiful, and an example of what Genesis lost when they parted company with Steve Hackett.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/Genesis_-_We_Can%27t_Dance.jpg)
Track title: "Since I Lost You"
Album: We Can't Dance
Era: 3
Year: 1991
Written by: Phil Collins
Subject: Love lost and trying to get over a broken heart
Type: Slow love song/ballad
Length: 4:10
Familiar? Yes
Rating: 8/10

Back we go to more recent Genesis and the penultimate album. I noted, the last time it came up, that there are some very fine tracks on We Can't Dance, but that it suffers from having to share space with too many sub-par tracks. Looking at it now for a moment, I can count, generally, seven tracks I would consider good or at least above par for Genesis at this late stage of their career, and six below. So I suppose that's almost 50/50, not as bad as I had thought. This is one of the better ones, and while I'm not entirely on board with the idea of Genesis ballads (there were the odd ones in the seventies, but they were few and far between) and have never considered them a band who should be writing love songs, this one is pretty good as ballads go.

To be completely honest, it wouldn't be out of place on a Phil Collins solo album, and hell, I could even see it holding its own on one by Mike and the Mechanics, but it's hard to really write a ballad that's different (listen to "Valentine" by Ten or "Under the Sun" by Threshold for examples) and this really isn't. It has a nice sort of swaying, bluesy rhythm and some sweet vocal harmonies, and the  melody is nice overall, even if it does kind of remind me stylistically of "In Too Deep" from Invisible Touch, another song with very much the Phil Collins stamp on it. The tiny little guitar solo is nice, but I must admit that at the moment the lyric really has a poignant effect on me, and it's quite hard to listen to.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Genesis83.jpg)
Track title: "It's Gonna Get Better"
Album: Genesis
Era: 3
Year: 1983
Written by: Mike Rutherford
Subject: Recovery after a broken love affair; trying again
Type: Love song/ballad
Length: 5:14
Familiar? Yes
Rating: 7/10

The first track to come up from the self-titled 1983 album, it's almost heartening (though it's all random of course and really means nothing) that the title of this track offsets the lyrical matter of the previous one, which upset me so. I hope its prediction is correct, but it will, at the time of writing, be some time before I believe it. At any rate, I do remember that after being mostly shocked by the sharp left turn taken by the band on the previous album, I had been hoping this would see a return to their progressive rock roots, and on hearing the single "Mama" I did take heart. While it would be incorrect to say this is another Abacab - the presence of the suite "Home by the Sea" disproves this - it couldn't be said to be too distant a cousin to the album that came before it, and much less related to the one before that.

However, after suffering through tracks like "That's All", "Silver Rainbow" and (ugh) "Illegal Alien" I do recall being delighted to hear the sweeping synths of Tony Banks introducing this closing track on the album, and thinking, you know what? Maybe it will be. Three years later, of course, that hope would be seen to be very much a vain one. This is, again, a ballad, but if you will, a hopeful ballad. From the title, and the tone of the song, I often wondered was it a plea from the band to their fans not to give up, that better was coming? If so, they let us down badly. Invisible Touch this. But as a closing ballad it's not fantastic, and yet one of the better tracks on this album, which only goes to show perhaps how poor the rest of it is.

Interesting, too, to see that Mike wrote the two ballads on this album (though then again, he is responsible for the monstrosity that is "Illegal Alien"!) and I guess he doesn't do too bad a job with it. Like I say though, it's the swirling, sonorous tones of the synths that makes this song, as Tony caresses them in a way that he has not really since the second part of "Home by the Sea", the instrumental part imaginatively titled "Second Home by the Sea", and it's good to hear, something to hold on to and pin our hopes on, even if those hopes are dashed by the electronic thunder of the opening and title track of the next album.