ARCHIVE #2 1976-1992

I was quite reluctant to listen to this triple CD effort. While the previous boxset was gorgeous (at least for three CD's out of four), I was very doubtful about the need to release another of the genre to cover the period 1976- 1992. This one not being the best (to say the least). I must admit that after having listening to it carefully, it is a honest compilation.

Disc one contains outakes tracks from several album sessions and some B-side material.

Some numbers are very poor like "Paper Late", "I'd Rather" or "Naminanu". The extended version of "I Can't Dance" is also questionable: the album version was already dull, so an extended 7 minutes one is even more boring.

Some are average like "Do" (a rocking instrumental) or "On The Shoreline" (from the "We Can't Dance" sessions). Actually this song is above par with this album and I do not understand why it did not make it. Probably not commercial enough ! "Spot The Pigeon", the title track of an EP and a tentative hit (?) single is OK. The last ones in this category are "Heart On Fire" and "Feeding" which are the usual Collins oriented stuff.

Other songs are good to even very good :"Evidence of Autumn" from the "Duke" sessions (already released on the US version of "Three Sides Live" - this is also the case for "Paper Late" by the way). "Inside" comes from the "Wind" sessions and has flavour of "Your Own Special Way" : it is less poppy, and very, very quiet). My favourite track of this CD is "Submarine". This B-side is a slow instrumental and almost noinaudible during two minutes : you really have to turn up the volume to max. to hear it, but then it nicely builds crescendo and turns out to be very symphonic.

Disc two : like on "Archives - Volume I", we have a live CD. This is the one I prefer on this compilation.

I was quite happy to hear two tracks from "And then they Were Three". The band usually skipped this album from their live sets (with the exception of its supporting tour which can be heard on the unoffical "Follow You, Follow Me" album recorded at Chicago Uptown Theatre - October 13, 1978). These are excellent versions of "Burning Rope" and "Deep In The Motherlode". "Trick " is represented with two quiet tracks "Ripples" and "Entangled". This is understandable since most of the other ones are featured on "Seconds Out". One can only regret that the best song out of it "Mad Man Moon" has never been played live (this information is available on the Genesis official web-site). But they don't tell us why !

On the other hand, I was dispointed that there is only one song from "Wind "(and not the best one) : "Your Own Special Way". I know that they played "Eleventh Earl of Mar" as well as "All in a Mouse's Night" during their 1978 tour. This would have been a better choice.

From "Duke", the rendition of "Duke's Travels, Duke's End" is absolutely fantastic. The highlight of disc two, for sure. The last three numbers come from what I consider their weakest albums, so there is no big deal here.

Disc three is the weakest from these "Archives" (like disc four was for "Archives I"). A lot of 12" versions of poor songs from their less creative studio career. Some interesting moments though : A live version of "The Lady Lies" from "And Then...", an extended demo of "Mama" with a keyboard solo at the end (this is the only unreleased studio material here) . This version is quieter than the one we know, and honestly I do prefer this version. "The Day The Light Went Out" is quite rocking and very good for a B-side, sounds like it comes out of "And Then..."). Same applies to "Vancouver". The most interesting one (IMO) is "It's Yourself" : it seems to be an earlier version of "Los Endos" but with vocals during the first three minutes and a very quiet end (a bit in the style of "Dancing Out") ! I will rate this effort three stars.

It is with a lot of emotion that this closes my reviews for Genesis. I reviewed a total of twenty-four works. I have done this in the course of the last two months (writing a lot more reviews from other beloved bands which will be posted soon). I spent some fantastic moments listening again to some of their work. As you have noticed in my reviews, I am the old fan type (from "Trespass" to "Duke"). I have suffered a lot with their later work. In the early seventies, Genesis was my preferred band and probably one of the most influent of the prog rock genre of all time. Thanks a million Mike, Peter, Phil, Steve, Tony and to a lesser extent Jonathan, Anthony and John. You were integrant part of my life when I was a teenager and I remind this period of my life with great emotions. Again, thank you very, very, very much.