TURN IT ON AGAIN - BEST OF 81-83

Returning to my role of reviewer I chose an odd and rare item but relatively easy for me to develop. I met with this album at the beginning of the '90s as a part of the CD collection of a female friend of mine. She liked Genesis as she liked many other bands of this moment and surely she bought this album as 'something else' and no more than this. For a died hard fan like me with almost 10 years of Genesis on my back at this time, at a first glance it resulted a sort of pastiche but soon I realized about the presence of two 'jewels' I could say. Clearly I can divide the review in two parts:

Part1: The irrelevant Not because of the songs, most of them I loved for years and even love them, but put here in a weird 'mescolanza' of tracks from Shapes, Abacab and Three sides live. In a random order, without any criteria, mixing live with studio, there is nothing special to say. Just that Mama is a bit shortened and Home by the sea is criminally cut with a bad quality fade out.

Part2: The relevant Beyond the judgement one can do about this songs and versions, clearly they conform a hook for the fans, and in the light of time, it is not a minor issue.

Turn it on again: I met with this version long time ago when I bought in a record shop a cassette of the EP Spot the pigeon. Strangely the cover of this cassette was the picture of the Ilegal aliens with the spanish sign 'Oficina de pasaportes' in the back. There you had those three songs, Pigeons, Match of the day and Inside and out, but this long version of Turn it on again with the medley, recorded from a Philadelphia show on Mama Tour. Now I saw it as a part of an other but new and massive official release. This version has its own details as a beginning nuanced with some keyboards motives and with Collins singing in a closer way to the original track than what he did in Three sides live (even when this version is the best ever to me). In addition the 'turn it on again' last phrase finishes with a sort of echo and not with the rocker shouting mode of TSL. The sound is high level.

Firth of fifth: The true reason for have this album. The relevant here is that this is the last version of this masterpiece in complete form played live and officially recorded. I met with this version before, when another female friend of mine show me and LP she was bought, the maxi of That's All. I remember a sort of beige cover. This version of Fifth of fifth has three relevant aspects. 1- The only complete official recording of the song with Daryl Stuermer on guitar, and I love his solos on Firth of fifth, with a heavier and rougher approach than Hackett, not better nor worst, just different. As a virtual friend of mine said once 'as Tony asked Hackett to play his music with the guitar, then he did the same with Daryl, giving him freedom to develop it'. 2- Tony Banks here use different equipment than in the previous versions, wath gives to the song another colours and sounds. 3- Collins was in the peak of his voice and he was giving to Genesis a heavier approach with sounded absolutely amazing. Old pieces like The lamb lies down on broadway, In the cage, Suppers Ready (Encore tour) and now Firth of fifth reveal this fact. The sound is top notch.

Being an odd compilation in which I can rate the first part of the list just for completionists, so one star, but the last two song (and specially the last one) with five stars, I guess that three stars for the pack is fair.