GENESIS

'Genesis' is a compilation album of Genesis that was released in 1989. It's a compilation that covers tracks that belong to very different phases of Genesis' career. It has tracks from their early days, the days of the 60's, a track when Hackett was still member of the band and tracks that belong to their most pop phase, which are the most of them, actually.

'Genesis' is a compilation album with nine tracks. The tracks chosen to be part of this compilation album are: 'Where The Sour Turns To Sweet' and 'The Serpent' are from their debut studio album 'From Genesis To Revelation' released in 1969. 'Afterglow' is from their eighth studio album 'Wind And Wuthering' released in 1976. 'Follow You Follow Me' is from their ninth studio album '...And Then There Were Three...' released in 1978. 'Behind The Lines' is from their tenth studio album 'Duke' released in 1980. 'No Reply At All' and 'Abacab' are from their eleventh studio album 'Abacab' released in 1981. 'Illegal Alien' and 'Mama' are from their twelfth studio album 'Genesis' released in 1983.

'Where The Sour Turns To Sweet' has a fairly nice melody and vocals. It's a very interesting song and is one of the best songs written in their earlier days. We can even say that this song has the seeds of what will be the future of their musical sound. 'The Serpent' starts quiet and very well with its bass line, good drumming and beautiful acoustic parts. However, it sounds too much to the 60's and makes me remember strongly The Beatles and The Doors. It's not a bad song but I can't see anything special on it. Besides, in general, I'm not a big fan of the music of the 60's, really. 'Illegal Alien' is a very weak song, written in the reggae musical style. It's one of the worst and silly songs ever written by the band, justifying perfectly its name. This is with 'Who Dunnit?' of 'Abacab', the two worst songs of Genesis. I cannot understand how was possible it has been chosen for this compilation. 'Mama' was released as a single on their studio album 'Genesis' and remains the band's most successful single in UK. It's easily recognizable for its harsh drum machine introduction which leads into synthesizer musical lines and finally it follows to the Phil Collins' leaden voice. This is an excellent song that retains sufficient quality and credibility, for me, to stands in one of the highlights of that album. 'No Reply At All' was the song released as the first single from 'Abacab'. This song marks clearly a step towards the mainstream pop direction that Genesis was taking at the time, and shows perfectly well the main influence of Phil Collins in the song writing of the group. It's a nice and typical pop song in the same vein of Collins' solo studio albums. See the inclusion of horns on it which is one example of that. 'Abacab' was also released as a single on their studio album 'Abacab'. This time it was the second single of that album. The title of the album was taken from the structure of an earlier version of the song, which no longer followed that format. I like very much of this song and I sincerely think we are in presence of one of the best songs on that album. This is a song with a very simple structure but that progress in a modern sound. 'Behind The Lines' is upbeat tempo music. It has a great progressive start with about two minutes, full of energy, but after that, the song enters on a pop rhythm. It has really a nice moment guided by Banks' keyboards and some creative guitar/bass from Rutherford, but it never reaches the stellar heights it hints at. It's an interesting song with some nice musical moments, but it fades all over the time. 'Afterglow' represents the grand final for their fantastic and unforgettable musical work, their studio album 'Wind And Wuthering'. This is one of the most majestic themes ever composed by Banks, and so, no wonders that this is for him one of his favourite Genesis' songs. We can consider that 'Afterglow' is the atmospheric, relaxing and magical moment of that great album. It's the third and final part of the three fantastic suite pieces of music that closes that album with a great musical atmosphere. 'Follow You Follow Me' is clearly a song released for a single with the intention to be a big hit and that achieved the top sales. It's a good pop song, but sincerely, it should never have been part of their album '...And Then There Were Three...'. I really think that it should never have been recorded by Genesis, but recorded by Collins on one of his solo albums. Unfortunately, this is the song that would make the definitive turning point in the Genesis' musical career.

Conclusion: 'Genesis' is in reality a very strange compilation of the band. As happened with many other compilations of Genesis, I can't a see a clear guided line in the choice of the tracks to be part of them. But, in this case, this is even much more evident to me. It's very hard to understand why were chosen two of the tracks from their first studio album, which is really a rarity, and the almost complete absence of the tracks that belong to their best and most progressive phase. Only one track was chosen of that phase, and that track doesn't belong to an album when Gabriel was a member of Genesis. This is a huge mystery to me. Even if we see the choice by a mere commercial light, it's hard to understand too. Why choose two songs from their initial phase, which isn't properly commercial? Besides, why choose some songs that are clearly weak points in their amazing career, such as 'Illegal Alien'? So, it's only for collectors and fans.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)