R-KIVE

When there was announcement in social media that Genesis would release a boxset compilation featuring a career-spanning selection of songs by the band and from the various solo projects of the group's members, I was not interested at all with it as it has major flaw in its concept. Even though the 37-track collection is a companion piece to the new documentary titled Genesis: "Sum of Its Parts", which will get its U.S. premiere on October 10, I still do not understand why the companion has ever existed and what for? Rutherford tells ABC News Radio that the compilation helps paint a full picture of what the group has accomplished. What? Give me a break ! A solo project is a creation by individual member of the band and it has nothing to do with the band. Yes, the members were somehow in the band in their music career but ...their music direction is different. How can you compare Peter Gabriel "So" or "Scratch" or "Security" with any Genesis album? Is there any relation between the music of Gabriel with Genesis? I don't see any root that connects to any early album of Genesis with the beauty of "Signal To Noise" from Gabriel's solo. Where is the connection, composition-wise? Is there any influence from the early Genesis to Signal to Noise? Nope! Not at all. The music is fundamentally different and has no tie at all!

Specific to Gabriel, I salute him for never looking back to his past days with Genesis. The past is over and he moves forward with his own identity crafting great music like "San Jacinto", "Wall Flower" , "The Family and The Fishing Net", "Signal To Noise", "Blood of Eden" and other brilliant composition that demonstrated he never come back to his past. In fact he do not perform any of Genesis track in his live performance. That's why I salute Gabriel for his bave action not looking back to his glory past days with the band.

Hackett is another style, he loves to revisit his work with Genesis and play them live and made studio albums to revisit his past days. But ... he is also a great composer wit brilliant album like Spectral Morning, Please Don't Touch, Dark Town, To watch The Storm. His Mechanical Bride is really a wonderfully crafted composition. But I don't see any tie at all with any element of Genesis music as the music is really eclectic in nature, push the envelope harder than ever.

Let's have a look on Mike Rutherford - why there is no track at all from the best album he crafted as solo musician called "Smallcreep's day" which is much progressive compared to any of his Mechanics band. In this case, there is some ties with the elements of Genesis music. Personally I do not really love the Phil Collins solo career and also Tony Banks - they only good as musician and composer when they do together in Genesis but not as individual solo. So it's hard to comment on their music here.

The other thing is that nothing really new that we can get from this boxset as all of the tracks previously already released. It's different with Genesis Archive 1 where we got many new things like two CDs contain the Lamb Lies Down performed live its entirety. That's really great. But this compilation features what already in the market with other album, nothing new.

Music-wise, I do not want to comment as there are many great tracks like Signal To Noise, Supper's Ready, The Knife, Ace of Wands (I really love it!). But there are lacklusters as well or not progressive at all. But I am sure as far as composition concern most of the tracks were already thought of carefully by the band or the members - only that the kind of music I do not like or I like it sometimes in some occasion.

In conclusion, I do not recommend anyone to purchase this compilation that has major flaw in its design by putting the mixtures of everything and pay little attention to the artistic aspects. Look at the horrible artwork! It's like a collection of multi-color candies with ugly font. So, I have to give only one star and in fact I do not recommend any collector to have this boxset to complete their collection - what for? It's a waste, really. Sorry .. Ihave to tell the truth on this ...as it seems this boxset intended for commercial goals only. If you really want to have great boxset, buy The Elements of King Crimson - it's really GREAT! You will hear Cirkus performed live and it;s unique and different than the studio version you have ever heard. Keep on proggin' ...!

Disappointed Genesis fan: GW.

Genesis is one of those bands that we all love (I think) but that divide opinions between the Gabriel-era versus Collins-era. Most of all enjoy their studio albums, some of them are timeless, some others are memorable and some others just good, in my opinion there are no bad Genesis studio albums, but it is just a matter of tastes.

A couple of years ago this 3-cd compilation album was released and though it was not my intention to immediately get it, I was lucky to found it in a ver cheap price, so yeah, I decided to buy it. Since then, I've just opened and listened to it once and that was enough, because I will always prefer listening to full studio albums than hits or randomly chosen tracks. But I had a good time, that's for sure. CD one features some of their real greatest tunes (Gabriel-era, of course) such as "Supper's Ready", "The Musical Box" or "The Carpet Crawlers", to name a few, which are of course, a true delight. This first CD has "Ace of Wands" as last song, a surprise because it is the first non-Genesis track featured here, this is an amazing song taken from Steve Hackett's debut album. This CD covers from 1970 to 1975.

CD two offers a wider selection, covering from 1976 to 1975. The difference here is the addition of several solo-songs, such as Banks' "For a While", Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", Collins' "In The Air Tonight" or "Silently Running" from Rutherford's side project Mike & The Mechanics. Nice hits that most of all know and even like to sing, despite no being the prog we were used to listen in the earlier Genesis. The other tracks in this album are the Genesis ones from the Collins-era, some of them you perfectly know them, love them or hate them, such as "Mama", "Easy Lover" or "Turn it On Again". Let me tell you that I enjoyed listening to every of the albums, but that was a experience I wanted to enjoy just once.

The third and final CD has songs from 1996 to 2012. Some Genesis songs here are "Invisible Touch", "Land of Confusion" and "I Can't Dance". The rest of the tracks were taken from the member's side or solo projects such as: "Over My Shoulder" from Mike & The Mechanics, "Signal to Noise" from Peter Gabriel, "Nomads" from Steve Hackett or "Siren" from Tony Banks. I liked it, but this was the CD I least enjoyed compared to the previous two.

Well, this is actually for collectors, I don't even consider this as a nice introduction to Genesis' music, not at all, which I would not really recommend it unless you want to increase your CD collection. If you get it, enjoy it!