WE CAN'T DANCE

The album "We can't dance" by Genesis from 1991 is not a bad album at all. Much is made about the pop songs from this album ('Jesus he knows me', 'No son of mine', and 'I Can't ) Dance') versus the prog sections of this album ('Driving the last spike', 'Dreaming while you sleep' though it should be 'dreaming while you drive' shouldn't it? and 'Fading Lights').

That said, I find rarely mentioned "Living Forever", "Tell me why" and "Way of the world" more interesting.These songs try to straddle a middle ground between 'prog' and 'pop', or maybe they are just pop songs but rather than sticking to 'pop' or 'prog' conventions these songs are fairly original. Also 'Never a time' was an interesting ballad, wasn't as predictable as 'Hold on my heart', nice guitar from Rutherford on that one.

My favourite track off this would have to be the ballad "Since you've been gone", it's performed so passionately, you can really feel the emotion on that one.Of the rest, the song' Fading Lights' would be my pick. Another emotional one, it feels like a 'farewell song' for Genesis, with a kind of trip back in time in the middle with the band jamming away an excellent instrumental piece that sounds like it could have been cut in the late 70's. But the other part where Phil is singing about 'distant fading lights' definitely feels like the band looking back and saying goodbye to it's fans. Even though Phil Collins didn't leave for another five years, it's obviously being said here, in a spectacular way.

On the downside, this album is a bit too long, at 70 minutes, though a lot of them are a lot longer than that these days. I originally had this album on vinyl, and it was actually a double vinyl LP. The album is also quite serious over the 70-minute duration, but still not a bad album. Well produced, band playing very well, good hooks.

There's not really a bad song on the album, but one of the least memorable of the Genesis albums. That said, the two songs 'Fading Lights' and 'Since I lost you', and possibly 'Way of the world' and 'I Can't Dance' make more of an impact and will perhaps be remembered.