Genesis Albums (23)
'Calling All Stations'
Release Date 9/1/1997
Tracks 12
Label Charisma
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What The Critics Say
Phil Collins left Genesis following the We Can't Dance tour and many observers expected Tony Banks and Michael Rutherford to finally call it a day. They decided to persevere instead, hiring former Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson to replace Collins. Given that Stiltskin was a European neo-prog band, it isn't a total surprise that Genesis returned to their art rock roots on Calling All Stations, their first album with Wilson. The music on Calling All Stations is long and dense, but it's given the same immaculate, pristine production that was the hallmark of their adult contemporary work with Collins. It wants to be an art rock album while still appealing to the pop audience, even if the group didn't really write pop songs for Calling All Stations. That may be because Wilson's voice isn't suited for pop, but works well with languid, synthesized prog settings. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Genesis Live: The Way We Walk, Vol. 2 (The Longs)'
Release Date 2/9/1993
Tracks 6
Label Atlantic
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What The Critics Say
The second CD culled from the We Can't Dance tour, The Way We Walk Volume Two: The Longs was designed to draw interest from Genesis' older fans, featuring the more progressive material from their shows. However, no music here outside of the "Old Medley" predates 1983, and while the band continued to write decent longer material through 1991's We Can't Dance, those songs were nowhere near as eclectic and experimental as the group's earlier work. That said, both "Domino" and "Home by the Sea" sound tighter and more powerful than on their already solid studio versions. And while the unfortunate "Old Medley" leaves the heart out of the band's earlier material, "Driving the Last Spike" and "Fading Lights" sound great live and are less polished than the studio versions on We Can't Dance. In the end, the album is fine way to catch up on the group's post-progressive days for those who do not want to deal with the pop songs that dominate their later records. ~ Geoff Orens, All Music Guide
'Genesis Live: The Way We Walk, Vol. 1 (The Shorts)'
Release Date 11/13/1992
Tracks 11
Label Atlantic
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What The Critics Say
Instead of releasing the live document of the We Can't Dance tour as a double CD, Genesis, or some clever record executive, decided to split the material into two separate releases. The first would focus on the group's pop singles, while the second would contain their longer, more progressive work. Done this way, it's difficult to get a sense of the concert's momentum: Even the songs on each disc are shuffled from their original live order. For what it's worth, Volume One: The Shorts contains almost all the Genesis singles from 1983-1992. The band rarely stray from the studio versions of their material, and with the audience barely audible and a greatest hits collection released in 1999, the record is superfluous for all but the most die-hard fans. ~ Geoff Orens, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After spending the 1980s moving in an increasingly pop-friendly direction, 1991's We Can't Dance marked a return to earlier aesthetics for Genesis. Edgier with more prominent guitars and live drums than on Invisible Touch, the record was the band's strongest musical statement in over a decade. With "Driving the Last Spike" and the dark "Dreaming While You Sleep" the group revisited one of their forgotten strengths, telling extended stories. That's not to say the album is a return to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or Trick of the Tail. Indeed, while there are several extended pieces on the record, there is none of the eccentricities, odd meters, or extended virtuoso solos of the band's progressive heyday. The album's closer, "Fading Lights," comes the closest, featuring an outstanding instrumental mid-section. Unfortunately, the record also contains some gutless ballads and peons for world understanding that sound miles away from any immediacy. However, the surprisingly gritty singles "No Son of Mine," "Jesus He Knows Me," and "I Can't Dance" help make up for the album's weaker moments. ~ Geoff Orens, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Delivered in the wake of Phil Collins' massive success as a solo star, Invisible Touch was seen at the time as a bit of a Phil Collins solo album disguised as a Genesis album, and it's not hard to see why. Invisible Touch is, without a doubt, Genesis' poppiest album, a sleek, streamlined affair built on electronic percussion and dressed in synths that somehow seem to be programmed, not played by Tony Banks. In that sense, it does seem a bit like No Jacket Required, and the heavy emphasis on pop tunes does serve the singer, not the band, but it's not quite fair to call this a Collins album, and not just because there are two arty tunes that could have fit on its predecessor, Genesis. There is a difference between Collins and Genesis -- on his own, Phil was lighter, and Genesis was often a bit chillier. Of course, the title track is the frothiest thing the band ever did, while "In Too Deep" and "Throwing It All Away" are power ballads that could be seen as Phil projects, but "Land of Confusion" was a protest tune and "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" was a stark, scary tale of scoring dope (which made its inclusion in a Michelob campaign in the '80s almost as odd as recovering alcoholic Eric Clapton shilling for the brewery). But those songs had big hooks that excused their coldness, and the arty moments sank to the bottom, obscured by the big, bold pop hooks here -- pop that was the sound of the mainstream in the late '80s, pop that still effortlessly evokes its time. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Moments of Genesis are as spooky and arty as those on Abacab -- in particular, there's the tortured howl of "Mama," uncannily reminiscent of Phil Collins' Face Value, and the two-part "Second Home by the Sea" -- but this eponymous 1983 album is indeed a rebirth, as so many self-titled albums delivered in the thick of a band's career often are. Here the art rock functions as coloring to the pop songs, unlike on Abacab and Duke, where the reverse is true. Some of this may be covering their bets -- to ensure that the longtime fans didn't jump ship, they gave them a bit of art -- some of it may be that the band just couldn't leave prog behind, but the end result is the same: as of this record, Genesis was now primarily a pop band. Anybody who paid attention to "Misunderstanding" and "No Reply at All" could tell that this was a good pop band, primarily thanks to the rapidly escalating confidence of Phil Collins, but Genesis illustrates just how good they could be, by balancing such sleek, pulsating pop tunes as "That's All" with a newfound touch for aching ballads, as on "Taking It All Too Hard." They still rocked -- "Just a Job to Do" has an almost nasty edge to its propulsion -- and they could still get too silly as on "Illegal Alien," where Phil's Speedy Gonzalez accident is an outright embarrassment (although in some ways it's not all that far removed from his Artful Dodger accent on the previous album's "Who Dunnit?"), and that's why the album doesn't quite gel. It has a little bit too much of everything -- too much pop, too much art, too much silliness -- so it doesn't pull together, but if taken individually, most of these moments are very strong, testaments to the increasing confidence and pop power of the trio, even if it's not quite what longtime fans might care to hear. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Genesis' second double live LP set in less than four years was originally a kind of a hybrid work, and has appeared in several different editions. There was confusion from the start because, despite its title, Three Sides Live in its British version, as Charisma GE 2002, had four concert sides. The U.S. version, which determined the title, was made up of ten live cuts recorded on-stage in Germany in 1981, with Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson in the group's lineup, doing the leaner, more pop-oriented repertory that constituted the group's sound by the early '80s, off of the albums Abacab and Duke. The resulting album offered lean, crisp, and generally bracing accounts of the group's then-current sound -- a mix of pop/rock highlighted by some prodigious musicianship -- and a four-minute glimpse of its progressive rock past in the guise of the "In the Cage Medley," containing "Cinema Show" from Selling England by the Pound. Phil Collins is in good voice throughout and the playing is often impressive, achieving some excitement and intimacy despite the arena-sized audiences to which the group was now playing. The original U.S. version filled out the hour's worth of live 1981 material (ending with "Afterglow") with the Top 40 hit "Paperlate" (which had appeared in England on the EP 3 X 3) and other recent single/EP cuts. Those sides were eliminated when the album was remastered for CD reissue in 1994. Curiously, neither Three Sides Live nor Seconds Out had found room for a live version of the hit single "Your Own Special Way." ~ Bruce Eder & William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Duke showcased a new Genesis -- a sleek, hard, stylish trio that truly sounded like a different band from its first incarnation -- but Abacab was where this new incarnation of the band came into its own. Working once again with producer Hugh Padgham, the group escalated the innovations of Duke, increasing the pop hooks, working them seamlessly into the artiest rock here. And even if the brash, glorious pop of "No Reply at All" -- powered by the percolating horns of Earth, Wind & Fire, yet polished into a precise piece of nearly new wave pop by Padgham -- suggests otherwise, this is still art rock at its core, or at least album-oriented rock, as the band works serious syncopations and instrumental forays into a sound that's as bright, bold, and jagged as the modernist artwork on the cover. They dabble in other genres, lacing "Me and Sarah Jane" with a reggae beat, for instance, which often adds dimension to their sound, as when "Dodo" rides a hard funk beat and greasy organ synths yet doesn't become obvious; it turns inward, requiring active listening. Truly, only "No Reply at All," the rampaging title track (possibly their hardest-rocking song to date), and the sleek and spooky "Man on the Corner" (which hides a real melancholy heart underneath its glistening surface) are immediate and accessible -- although the Mockney jokes of "Who Dunnit?" could count, it's too much of a geeky novelty to be pop. The rest of Abacab is truly modern art rock, their last album that could bear that tag comfortably. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
