GenesisA Retrospective:1966-1997 |
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Overview:In the history of rock and roll, there aren’t many bands who’ve enjoyed the kind of longevity as Genesis. They were celebrated as one of the premiere progressive-rock groups in their early incarnation with Peter Gabriel on vocals. They created classic albums such as Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. After his departure, drummer Phil Collins stepped up to the mike and the group soldiered on, reaching new commercial peaks and establishing themselves as a classic rock act in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with the albums And Then There Were Three, Duke, and Abacab, promoted by songs like “Follow You, Follow Me,” “Turn It on Again,” “Misunderstanding,” “Abacab,” “No Reply at All,” and “Paperlate.” They went on to become one of the biggest bands in the world in the ‘80s and ‘90s with multi-platinum albums Genesis, Invisible Touch, and We Can’t Dance, fueled by songs like “That’s All,” “Invisible Touch,” “Throwing It All Away,” “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight,” “Land of Confusion,” “In Too Deep,” “No Son of Mine,” “I Can’t Dance,” and “Hold on My Heart.” After Collins left in 1992, the group enlisted Ray Wilson as the lead singer and released one more album before calling it quits. Collins, Banks, and Rutherford reunited for tours in 2007 and 2021. They have sold an estimated 100 to 150 million albums worldwide. The Players:
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The Beginning:In 1965, 15-year-olds Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks formed the Garden Wall at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey. Meanwhile, fellow students Michael Rutherford and Anthony Phillips were in a group called Anon. When the two groups merged, they formed New Anon and recorded a six-song demo of songs mostly written by Rutherford and Phillips. BE A fellow Charterhouse alum, producer Jonathan King, heard their tape and got them into the studio. Now rechristened Genesis – at King’s suggestion – they had their first formal recording sessions in December of 1967. They released their debut single, “The Silent Sun,” in February 1968 and a second single, “A Winter’s Tale,” followed. “At this time, their music was a form of lyrical folk-based progressive pop, built on lush melodies primarily carried on acoustic guitar and piano, with lyrics that tended toward the florid and trippy, in keeping with the tastes of the time – psychedelia was in vogue, and Genesis…showed an exceptional facility with poetic content as well as gorgeous melodies.” BE |
From Genesis to RevelationGenesis |
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Released: March 7, 1969 Peak: 170 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Genre: progressive rock Rating:  2.630 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)
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* on reissues About the Album:King added more orchestration to some of the band’s earliest material to make them sound more like the Moody Blues and the resulting album was released in 1969. It received little notice from critics or the public. They were “too pop-oriented in its melodies, spirit, and approach to fit in with the heavy psychedelia of the period; but also too complex to appeal to those listeners enamored of the Bee Gees and other pop/rock acts; and not nearly hard-rocking enough to appeal to the fans of the likes of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, et al.” BEWhen the band’s contracts with King and Decca Records ended in June 1969, it looked like the members might go their separate ways. Phillips and Gabriel were planning to go to college. Rutherford was already at Farnborough Technical College and Banks was at Essex University studying physics. BE “Every band has to start somewhere” JP and with Genesis’ “members barely past their 18th birthdays… [they were] still working out what they wanted to sound like.” AM As “produced by English impresario Jonathan King,” JP “they sound like the Bee Gees… (picture something similar to the…Odessa album)” AM “trying to be the Moody Blues,” AM albeit “an earnest, mushy, cliché-spouting knockoff” JP of the latter. “The Silent Sun and Where the Sour Turns to Sweet are pleasant enough, but scarcely indicate the true potential of the group or its members. A pleasant enough piece of pop-psychedelia/art rock, but not a critically important release, except to the truly dedicated.” AM “The most amazing thing about this album – a true relic of late-1960s hokum – is that Genesis didn’t change the band name out of embarrassment.” JP
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TrespassGenesis |
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Released: October 23, 1970 Peak: -- US, 98 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK), 2.47 EAS Genre: progressive rock Rating: 2.738 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings)
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About the Album:The group didn’t give up, though. They were signed to the new lable Charisma and recorded their second album, Trespass. It “showed the first signs of the band that Genesis would become – it was still more folk-based than most progressive rock of the period, and some of the songs couldn’t quite carry their length; and they had some way to go in terms of vocal and instrumental finesse. But it had reach if not grasp – most of the album was comprised of extended pieces, sung with dramatic, almost operatic intensity and highly involved arrangements and complex parts for all of the instruments. One number in particular, an extended conceptual piece called The Knife, stood out, and an excerpt from it was issued as a single.” BE“Genesis’ first truly progressive album” AM is “as serious as all get-out.” JP The “band’s classical-folk-jazz meld hasn’t yet moved from hyphenation to hybrid.” JP “This first effort at large-scale songwriting was a warm-up” JP that “is important mostly as a formative effort. Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Michael Rutherford are here, but the guitarist is Anthony Phillips and the drummer is John Mayhew. Gabriel, Banks, Phillips, and Rutherford are responsible for the compositions, which are far more ambitious than the group’s earlier efforts (‘Silent Sun,’ etc.). Unfortunately, much of what is here is more interesting for what it points toward than what it actually does – the group reflects a peculiarly dramatic brand of progressive rock, very theatrical as music, but not very successful.” AM “The lyrics grapple with good and evil, salvation and vengeance.” JP “The lyrics are complex enough but lack the unity and clarity that would make Genesis’ subsequent albums among the most interesting of prog rock efforts to analyze.” AM “Gabriel’s voice is very expressive but generally lacks power and confidence, while the conventional backup vocalizing by the others is wimpy, and Phillips’ playing is muted. Tony Banks’ keyboards are the dominant instruments, which isn’t that bad, but it isn’t the Genesis that everyone came to know.” AM “The soft, lyrical Visions of Angels and Stagnation are typical, gentle works by a band that later learned how to rock much harder. Only one of the songs here, The Knife – which rocks harder than anything else on Trespass and is easily the best track on the album – lasted in the group’s concert repertory past the next album.” AM
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Nursery CrymeGenesis |
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Released: November 12, 1971 Peak: -- US, 39 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.06 UK, 1.5 world (includes US + UK), 4.9 EAS Genre: progressive rock Rating:  3.300 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)
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About the Album:After losing two members, Genesis brought in Phil Collins, a former child actor turned drummer. Guitarist Anthony Phillips, who suffered from crippling stage fright, was replaced by Steve Hackett. He was new enough to the band that he barely played on the Nursery Cryme album. Mike Rutherford wrote and played most of the guitar parts, including “The Musical Box,” the centerpiece of the album. The song, which originated during Phillips’ tenure and used some material he had composed, told a “Victorian-era story of children, murder, and ghostly apparitions.” BEThe album “was far more exciting than most of the progressive rock of the period. Moreover, it had a daring edge…and while it might not have become a pop culture phenomenon, the album and the song did find an audience among collegiate listeners, principally from the more cerebral members of the public who were lofting Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s and Yes’ albums high up the charts.” BE “If Genesis truly established themselves as progressive rockers on Trespass, Nursery Cryme is where their signature persona was unveiled: true English eccentrics, one part Lewis Carroll and one part Syd Barrett, creating a fanciful world that emphasized the band’s instrumental prowess as much as Peter Gabriel’s theatricality.” AM Part of the new focus can be placed on “two new musicians – Collins on drums and Hackett on guitar – [who] put some kick into the band. They were full of ideas, testing extremes of fingerpicking delicacy and rock riffing, expansiveness and compression.” JP “Which isn’t to say that all of Nursery Cryme works. There are times when the whimsy is overwhelming, just as there are periods when there’s too much instrumental indulgence, yet there’s a charm to this indulgence, since the group is letting itself run wild.” AM “Compared to what Genesis would become, their third album can sound clumsy. But for once in their career, decorum didn’t always matter.” JP “Even if they’ve yet to find the furthest reaches of their imagination, part of the charm is hearing them test out its limits, something that does result in genuine masterpieces, as on The Musical Box and The Return of the Giant Hogweed, two epics that dominate the first side of the album and give it its foundation. If the second side isn’t quite as compelling or quite as structured, it doesn’t quite matter because these are the songs that showed what Genesis could do, and they still stand as pinnacles of what the band could achieve.” AM
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FoxtrotGenesis |
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Released: October 6, 1972 Peak: -- US, 12 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK, 2.0 world (includes US + UK), 5.24 EAS Genre: progressive rock Rating:  3.760 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings)
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About the Album:Peter Gabriel’s theatrical attributes fit well with the group’s live performances. He began extensively using “masks, makeup, and props in concert…[which] turned Genesis’ performances into multimedia events…Word soon began to spread about Genesis being an act that was worth hearing and, even more so, worth seeing in concert.” BE“Foxtrot, issued in the fall of 1972, was the flash point in Genesis’ history, and not just on commercial terms. The writing, especially on Supper’s Ready – another conceptual piece, this time taking up an entire side of the LP – was as sophisticated as anything in progressive rock, and the lyrics were complex, serious, and clever, a far cry from the usual overblown words attached to most prog rock.” BE Foxtrot was Genesis’s milestone at the time.” JP This “is where Genesis began to pull all of its varied inspirations into a cohesive sound – which doesn’t necessarily mean that the album is streamlined, for this is a group that always was grandiose even when they were cohesive, or even when they rocked, which they truly do for the first time here.” AM “Indeed, the startling thing about the opening Watcher of the Skies is that it’s the first time that Genesis attacked like a rock band, playing with a visceral power. There’s might and majesty here, and it, along with Get ‘Em Out by Friday, is the truest sign that Genesis has grown muscle without abandoning the whimsy.” AM Still, to some, “what sounded wildly innovative 35 years ago now seems endearingly goofy and all too overblown.” JP Unquestionably, “the bombast runs thick on this album, nearly half of which is devoted to the music-hall apocalypse of” JP “the epic 22-minute closer Supper’s Ready, a nearly side-long suite that remains one of the group’s signature moments. It ebbs, flows, teases and taunts, see-sawing between coiled instrumental attacks and delicate pastoral fairy tales.” AM “They’ve rarely sounded as fantastical or odd.” AM “If Peter Gabriel remained a rather inscrutable lyricist, his gift for imagery is abundantly, as there are passages throughout the album that are hauntingly evocative in their precious prose. But what impresses most about Foxtrot is how that precociousness is delivered with pure musical force. This is the rare art-rock album that excels at both the art and the rock, and it’s a pinnacle of the genre (and decade) because of it.” AM
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Selling England by the PoundGenesis |
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Released: October 5, 1973 Peak: 70 US, 3 UK, -- CN, 52 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.2 UK, 2.5 world (includes US + UK), 7.9 EAS Genre: progressive rock Rating: 4.035 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings)
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About the Album:Selling England by the Pound “featured Gabriel’s strongest vocal performance and transcendent work by the rest of the band, especially Tony Banks’ keyboards, which took on a light yet fiercely lyrical profile.” BE “They were still a cult band in the United States…but thanks to a lot more FM radio play their music was getting heard beyond the ranks of the cultists, and finding new listeners.” BE“Genesis proved that they could rock on Foxtrot but on its follow-up Selling England by the Pound they didn’t follow this route, they returned to the English eccentricity of their first records, which wasn’t so much a retreat as a consolidation of powers.” AM “Most of the album flaunts songs that are stuffed with stop-start riffs, shifty meters, atmospheric interludes and nutty rhymes: meticulously plotted excess.” JP “Even if this eight-track album has no one song that hits as hard as Watcher of the Skies, Genesis hasn’t sacrificed the newfound immediacy of Foxtrot; they’ve married it to their eccentricity, finding ways to infuse it into the delicate whimsy that’s been their calling card since the beginning.” AM This “is prog Genesis at its pinnacle, an album of songsuites that can barely stop morphing long enough to show off a majestic tune or a spiraling guitar riff. It’s a concept album (but of course) about Britain’s long descent from past glories: from Shakespeare and chivalry to dead-end jobs and supermarket shopping.” JP “Many overt literary allusions – the Tolkeinisms of the title of The Battle of Epping Forest only being the most apparent – gives this album a story book quality. It plays as a collection of short stories, fables and fairy tales.” AM “Genesis has never been as direct as they’ve been on the fanciful yet hook-driven I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) – apart from the fluttering flutes in the fade-out, it could easily be mistaken for a glam single – or as achingly fragile as on More Fool Me.” AM The latter “introduces Collins as the morosely romantic lead singer he would later become full-time.” JP “It’s this delicate balance and how the album showcases the band’s narrative force on a small scale as well as large that makes this their arguable high-water mark.” AM
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The Lamb Lies Down on BroadwayGenesis |
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Released: November 18, 1974 Peak: 41 US, 10 UK, 15 CN, 80 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 2.0 world (includes US + UK), 5.55 EAS Genre: progressive rock Rating: 4.214 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings)
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About the Album:The double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway “marked the culmination of the group’s early history. A concept album with a very involved story and a large cast of characters, its composition had been difficult, involving a story outlined and written (along with most of the lyrics) exclusively by Gabriel.” BE Division began to form in the band. Gabriel was dealing with personal problems, such as his marriage, and the group thought his costumes were starting to distract from the music. BE He announced his departure from the group in May 1975. Go to the DMDB page for more on this album.
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A Trick of the TailGenesis |
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Released: February 2, 1976 Peak: 31 US, 3 UK, 12 CN, 93 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 3.5 world (includes US + UK), 4.99 EAS Genre: progressive rock Rating: 3.573 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)
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About the Album:After auditioning potential replacements for Gabriel, Genesis ended up turning inward to drummer Phil Collins as their new lead singer. They returned to the studio in October 1975 to work on what became A Trick of the Tail. It wasn’t a huge departure from earlier albums, but they did make more of an effort to make the music more accessible.“After Peter Gabriel departed for a solo career, Genesis embarked on a long journey to find a replacement, only to wind back around to their drummer, Phil Collins, as a replacement” (Erlewine). “The band tried to maintain its old self. Collins openly imitated Gabriel, and when Banks and Rutherford stepped forward as the main songwriters, they kept up the oblique storytelling lyrics and the multipart structures, cinched by the filigree and sinew of Steve Hackett’s guitar.” JP However, “the band decided not to pursue the stylish, jagged postmodernism of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – a move that Gabriel would do in his solo career – and instead returned to the English eccentricity of Selling England by the Pound for its next effort, A Trick of the Tail. In almost every respect, this feels like a truer sequel to Selling England by the Pound than Lamb; after all, that double album was obsessed with modernity and nightmare, whereas this album returns the group to the fanciful fairy tale nature of its earlier records.” AM “Genesis were moving away from the barbed pop of the first LP and returning to elastic numbers that showcased their instrumental prowess, and they sounded more forceful and unified as a band than they had since Foxtrot. Not that this album is quite as memorable as Foxtrot or Selling England, largely because its songs aren’t as immediate or memorable: apart from Dance on a Volcano, this is about the sound of the band playing, not individual songs, and it succeeds on that level quite wildly – to the extent that it proved to longtime fans that Genesis could possibly thrive without its former leader in tow.” AM
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Wind and WutheringGenesis |
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Released: December 27, 1976 Peak: 26 US, 7 UK, 31 CN, 57 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 3.5 world (includes US + UK), 4.09 EAS Genre: progressive rock Rating:  3.246 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings)
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About the Album:Another album followed by year’s end. “Like its predecessor, the album fit into a progressive rock mode, but even the extended pieces…had a lighter texture and tone to much of its length and was typical of most art rock of the time.” BE The single, “Your Own Special Way,” gave the band their first taste of chart success in the U.S.“Wind & Wuthering followed quickly on the heels of A Trick of the Tail and they’re very much cut from the same cloth, working the same English eccentric ground that was the group's stock in trade since Trespass.” AM “A Trick of the Tail played like Genesis’ attempt at crafting a great Genesis record without Peter Gabriel” AM and this album stills shows the band “seeking the grandeur of the Gabriel years” JP as they “went mostly for the slow and momentous, complete with filibustering interludes that anesthetize the songs.” JP “Wind & Wuthering finds Genesis tentatively figuring out what their identity will be in this new phase of their career. The most obvious indication of this is Mike Rutherford’s Your Own Special Way, which is both the poppiest tune the group had cut and also the first that could qualify as a love song. It stands out on a record that is, apart from that, a standard Genesis record, but quite a good one in that regard.” AM
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And Then There Were ThreeGenesis |
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Released: March 23, 1978 Peak: 14 US, 3 UK, 11 CN, 12 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.1 UK, 5.5 world (includes US + UK), 7.54 EAS Genre: progressive rock/classic rock Rating: 3.262 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings)
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About the Album:On the eve of the band’s release of live album Seconds Out, Steve Hackett announced his departure from the band. Genesis used Daryl Stuermer in concert, but Rutherford stepped up to cover guitar parts in the studio. The trio “released the appropriately titled And Then There Were Three, which abandoned any efforts at progressive rock in favor of a softer pop sound.” BE The album gave them their first full-fledged taste of success in America with a gold album and a top-40 single in “Follow You, Follow Me.”“Adios to Steve Hackett’s lead guitar.” JP The new lineup, now “dwindled down to Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins, a situation alluded to in the title,” AM “made its most anthem-laden album, with keyboardist Banks seizing the foreground.” JP “And Then There Were Three, more than either of its immediate predecessors, feels like the beginning of the second phase of Genesis.” AM There are still songs with “high-concept scenarios – one seems to be about a killer snowman – but the music sets aside most of the old digressions in favor of pop discipline.” JP Overall, “the group’s aesthetic was…shifting, moving away from the fantastical, literary landscapes that marked both the early Genesis LPs and the two transitional post-Gabriel outings, as the bandmembers turned their lyrical references to contemporary concerns and slowly worked pop into the mix” AM and making sure “the songs stay grounded in melody.” JP Never is the new pop sound more apparent than on Follow You, Follow Me. It gave Genesis “its first U.S. hit, even if old fans started to feel betrayed.” JP “Its calm, insistent melody, layered with harmonies, is a perfect soft rock hook, although there’s a glassy, almost eerie quality to the production that is also heard throughout the rest of the record.” AM “These chilly surfaces are an indication that Genesis don’t quite want to abandon prog at this point, but the increasing emphasis on melody and tight song structures points the way toward the group’s ‘80s work.” AM
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DukeGenesis |
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Released: March 28, 1980 Peak: 11 US, 12 UK, 13 CN, 22 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.3 UK, 5.0 world (includes US + UK), 7.00 EAS Genre: classic rock Rating: 3.702 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)
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About the Album:Genesis returned in 1980 with Duke. “Gone were all of the progressive rock elements that had been present in their music since 1970, and in their place was a slickly commercial pop/rock sound. The public responded in kind by lofting it to the number one spot in England, a first for the band, while it reached number 11 in America.“If And Then There Were Three suggested that Genesis were moving toward pop, Duke is where they leaped into the fray. Not that it was exactly a head-first leap;” AM “there was still a heavy dose of prog, as the concluding ‘Duke’ suite made clear,” AM “with Gabriel-style Genesis, with fanfare-like keyboards, martial drumrolls and the old opulence.” JP However, “Guide Vocal, has lyrics that give Gabriel a definitive kiss-off” JP and this is album is more “modernist art rock, quite dissimilar to the fragile, delicate [Gabriel-era] Selling England by the Pound.” AM Generally, though, “the band…have peppered the album with pop songs” AM in which “the music usually stays upbeat…and every so often the hazy instrumental passages clear up for the kind of straightforward songs that would define latter-day Genesis.” JP That “new signature sound” AM is clearest on the singles. Misunderstanding “is a light, nearly soulful, heartache song” AM while Turn It on Again “is a thunderous arena rocker.” AM The pair of songs “showcase the new version of Genesis at its absolute best. The rest of the record comes close to matching them” AM on this “schizoid but invigorating album.” JP
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AbacabGenesis |
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Released: September 14, 1981 Peak: 7 US, 12 UK, 3 CN, 18 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.3 UK, 6.5 world (includes US + UK), 7.6 EAS Genre: classic rock Rating: 3.697 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings)
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About the Album:Phil Collins released his first solo album, Face Value, in the early part of the year and Genesis came back with Abacab at the end of the year. It was a “stripped-down pop/rock album that even had the three core members interacting musically with the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section. Like its predecessor, it topped the charts in England and easily made the Top Ten in the United States.” BE Phil Collins also released his first solo album, Face Value, that year. Another concert album, Three Sides Live, followed.Previous album “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.” AM “Straining to feel like virtuosos while staying terse, Genesis piled up staccato, minimalist keyboard patterns behind some of their bleakest lyrics.” JP “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.” AM The one exception, is “the brash, glorious pop of No Reply at All,” AM which is “powered by the percolating horns of Earth, Wind & Fire, yet polished into a precise piece of nearly new wave pop by Padgham.” AM The song “echoes the funk…Collins was savoring on his smash solo debut, Face Value.” JP 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.” AM “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.” AM
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GenesisGenesis |
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Released: October 3, 1983 Peak: 9 US, 11 UK, 2 CN, 41 AU Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 0.5 UK, 10.2 world (includes US + UK), 13.79 EAS Genre: classic rock/pop Rating: 3.792 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)
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About the Album:Phil Collins released another solo album in 1982 (Hello, I Must Be Going) and reached the top 10 with a cover of “You Can’t Hurry Love.” That set the stage for even more commercial success for Genesis. Their self-titled 1983 release gave the band their first top-10 hit with “That’s All.” The album became the second platinum seller for the band. Go to the DMDB page for more on this album.
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Invisible TouchGenesis |
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Released: June 9, 1986 Peak: 3 US, 13 UK, 11 CN, 3 AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 1.2 UK, 14.6 world (includes US + UK), 21.3 EAS Genre: classic rock/pop Rating: 3.800 out of 5.00 (average of 31 ratings)
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About the Album:Phil Collins roared back with another solo album, No Jacket Required, in 1985 and became one of the biggest sensations in pop music with #1 hits “One More Night” and “Sussudio.” Meanwhile, Mike Rutherford helmed the side project Mike + the Mechanics in 1985 and landed two top-10 hits with “Silent Running” and “All I Need Is a Miracle.” It all set the stage for Genesis’ greatest success yet. Invisible Touch gave the band five top-5 hits in the U.S., including the #1 title cut. The band had “a string of sold-out arena shows that cast the group in the same league as concert stalwarts like the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead.” BE Go to the DMDB page for more about this album.
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We Can’t DanceGenesis |
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Released: October 28, 1991 Peak: 4 US, 12 UK, 5 CN, 8 AU Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 1.5 UK, 17.3 world (includes US + UK), 18.91 EAS Genre: classic rock veteran/pop Rating: 3.415 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings)
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About the Album:In the seven years before the next Genesis album, the members continued with side projects. Phil Collins hit #1 again with two songs from the Buster soundtrack and released another hugely successful solo album, But Seriously, in 1989. It featured four more top-10 hits, including the #1 hit “Another Day in Paradise.” Mike + the Mechanics also released the top of the charts with the title cut from their 1988 Living Years album.When the band reconvened, they once again churned out multiple hits from a mega-platinum album. It was, however, another ending for Genesis as it was Collins’ last studio effort with the group. Go to the DMDB page for more about this album.
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Calling All StationsGenesis |
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Released: September 1, 1997 Peak: 54 US, 2 UK, 29 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.1 US, 0.1 UK, 1.5 world (includes US + UK) Genre: classic rock veteran Rating: 2.339 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings)
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About the Album:Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford enlisted Ray Wilson as the new singer for one more studio effort. Calling All Stations “recalled their art rock roots in some respects” BE but “neither the critics nor the fans warmed to the album – it sold relatively poorly…the accompanying tour was equally unsuccessful.” BE They have yet to release another studio effort, although Banks, Rutherford, and Collins did regroup for tours in 2007 and 2021.“Trademark turns into travesty.” JP “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.” AM The result was a reshaping of “Genesis as a muscle-headed bar-band imitation of its cheesiest self.” JP “The music on Calling All Stations is long, dense, and lugubrious, 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, but not at the expense of losing the pop audience – which makes it all the stranger that the group doesn’t really write pop songs on Calling All Stations. That may be because Wilson’s voice isn’t suited for pop, but works well with languid, synthesized prog settings. But even ponderous prog rock has to have musical themes worth exploring, and on that level, Genesis come up dry on Calling All Stations.” AM “The title song wonders, ‘Can anybody tell me, tell me exactly where I am / I’ve lost all sense of direction.’ Ain’t it the truth…And they haven’t released an album since.” JP
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Turn It on Again – The HitsGenesis |
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Released: October 26, 1999 Recorded: 1973-1997 Peak: 65 US, 4 UK, 28 CN, 98 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, -- UK, 4.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: progressive rock/classic rock Rating: 4.189 out of 5.00 (average of 6 ratings)
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Tracks:(1) Turn It on Again (2) Invisible Touch (3) Mama (4) Land of Confusion (5) I Can’t Dance (6) Follow You Follow Me (7) Hold on My Heart (8) Abacab (9) I Know What I Like in Your Wardrobe (10) No Son of Mine (11) Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (12) In Too Deep (13) Congo (14) Jesus He Knows Me (15) That’s All (16) Misunderstanding (17) Throwing It All Away (18) The Carpet Crawlers 1999Tracks (The Tour Edition) – Disc 1:(1) Turn It on Again (2) No Son of Mine (3) I Can’t Dance (4) Hold on My Heart (5) Jesus He Knows Me (6) Tell My Why (7) Invisible Touch (8) Land of Confusion (9) Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (10) In Too Deep (11) Throwing It All Away (12) Mama (13) That’s All (14) Illegal Alien (15) Abacaba (16) No Reply at All (17) The Carpet Crawlers 1999Tracks (The Tour Edition) – Disc 2:(1) Paperlate (2) Keep It Dark (3) Man on the Corner (4) Duchess (5) Misunderstanding (6) Follow You, Follow Me (7) Many Too Many (8) Your Own Special Way (9) Afterglow (10) Pigeons (11) Inside and Out (12) A Trick of the Tail (13) Counting Out Time (14) I Know What I Like in Your Wardrobe (15) Happy the Man (16) The Knife (17) CongoAbout Turn It on Again – The Hits:Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hacket, and Rutherford reunited to record a new version of “The Carpet Crawlers” for this album. Otherwise, everything is previously released. The single disc 1999 release missed some songs, such as “Paperlate,” “No Reply at All,” and “Man on the Corner” and barely acknowledged the Peter Gabriel era. The double-disc tour edition of the album in 2007 largely corrected those problems although the Gabriel years are still under-represented.Tracks Not on Previously Noted Albums:
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Platinum CollectionGenesis |
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Released: November 29, 2004 Recorded: 1970-1997 Peak: 100 US, 21 UK Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock/classic rock Rating: 3.540 out of 5.00 (average of 9 ratings)
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Tracks, Disc 1:(1) No Son of Mine (2) I Can’t Dance (3) Jesus He Knows Me (4) Hold on My Heart (5) Invisible Touch (6) Throwing It All Away (7) Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (8) Land of Confusion (9) In Too Deep (10) Mama (11) That’s All (12) Home by the Sea (13) Second Home by the Sea (14) Illegal Alien (15) Paperlate (16) Calling All StationsTracks, Disc 2:(1) Abacab (2) Keep It Dark (3) Turn It on Again (4) Behind the Lines (5) Duchess (6) Misunderstanding (7) Many Too Many (8) Follow You Follow Me (9) Undertow (10) In That Quiet Earth (11) Afterglow (12) Your Own Special Way (13) A Trick of the Tail (14) Ripples (15) Los EndosTracks, Disc 3:(1) The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (2) Counting Out Time (3) The Carpet Crawlers (4) Firth of Fifth (5) The Cinema Show (6) I Know What I Like in Your Wardrobe (7) Supper’s Ready (8) The Musical Box (9) The KnifeAbout Platinum Collection:This three-disc set goes deep into the Genesis catalog, covering much more of the Gabriel era (a full disc’s worth) and a fair amount of album cuts. Astonishingly, it omits “No Reply at All” but there are no other glaring oversights. The reverse chronogical order means that the different phases of Genesis are not mixed together, which is more jarring on Turn It on Again – The Hits. |
The Last Domino?Genesis |
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Released: September 17, 2021 Recorded: 1973-1991 Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock/classic rock |
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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Tracks, Disc 1:(1) Duke’s End (2) Turn It on Again (3) Mama (4) Land of Confusion (5) Home by the Sea (6) Second Home by the Sea (7) Fading Lights (8) The Cinema Show (9) Afterglow (10) Hold on My Heart (11) Jesus He Knows Me (12) That’s All (13) The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (14) In Too DeepTracks, Disc 2:(1) Follow You, Follow Me (2) Duchess (3) No Son of Mine (4) Firth of Fifth (5) I Know What I Like in Your Wardrobe (6) In the Glow of the Night/The Last Domino (7) Throwing It All Away (8) Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (9) Invisible Touch (10) I Can’t Dance (11) Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (12) The Carpet Crawlers (13) AbacabAbout The Last Domino?:This is a completely unnecessary cash-grab compilation designed to accompany Genesis’ tour of the same name. |
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First posted 3/3/2010; last updated 9/26/2024. |
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