INVISIBLE TOUCH

Invisible prog

The "Invisible touch" album was clearly intended to spawn a succession of hit singles for Genesis. In the end, only the final track, "The Brazilian" (which of course was the only thing remotely progressive on the album) was the only track not to appear on a single.

This, the title track of the album was the first to be released in single format, reaching the top of the US charts and number 15 in the UK. The song is of course a funky, lightweight number, designed to appeal to the dancehall masses. Fun it may be, but it has little value as a serious or indeed interesting piece of work.

The single was backed by the latter half of the longer "Domino" from the same album, the sub-title of this section being "The last domino". It was relatively unusual for Genesis to use an album track as a single B side, their usual preference being to utilise discarded surplus material from the album. The first half of the track "In the glow of the night" later appeared as the B side of "Tonight tonight tonight".

An extended remix of the A side was released on the 12" single of "Invisible touch", and is now available on the second "Archives" box set.

Taken from their most commercially successful album, this song is maybe the best example of the Pop Rock music with quality which the band was composing then. It is maybe the best song from the album, being at the same time very commercial but with some good arrangements and keyboard sounds, including the use of electronic drums by Phil Collins, which he used in excess in the album, IMO. It is also maybe their best commercial song, and it is still a "respectable song" from their Pop Rock albums. The lyrics are a bit funny and a bit silly in some places, but the music and the arrangements are much better. As Collins explained in the "A History" video, the song was started by Mike Rutherford`s guitar riffto which Collins added lyrics and Tony Banks some music, so Collins wasn`t the main influence in Genesis becoming a Pop Rock band, IMO.

She seems to have an invisible touch, yeah. Ummmm, okay Phil, whatever you say. If you are into collecting 45 rpm singles of prog rock groups during their "time to make hit singles" eras, then maybe this one might interest you. Or maybe you have a deep inner urge to wanna dance, but don't want to share it with you prog reviewer comrades. Maybe Phil did have the answer after all?

The B side of this single is a nice "prog tendencies" piece called The Last Domino, and is unusually dark, musically and lyrically, for Genesis. I do recall the AOR radio stations of the time period playing the B side much, much more than the A side when this came out.

In any case, for the prog community, this is pretty much a waste of time and truly for completionists. Especially those that still maintain a record player capable of playing 45 rpm records. For the rest of you, you've been warned.