THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

a completely selfish and thougtless compilation, with the record companies moneygrabbing fingerprints all over it. This delivers nothing new that previous compilations haven't given us. If you like the collins years then this may be of interest to you but you might as well get either one of the archives, or the hits collection, or better yet the studio albums. Disc 3 is the only one worth listening to because it shows off the best of the gabriel years. Overall this is a poor compilation that isn't shy about favouring the latter years Genesis, because more people are familiar with Phil Collins pop efforts and therefore are more likely to by this. The real Genesis fans are not going to get anything out of this.

A total waste of money, only those gullible enough would spend hard earned money on this latest ' milking the cow' exercise. What will Genesis try next? Hopefully sales will be so poor that it may prompt the band to regroup and try write some new material before their pension kicks in. How can you take excerpts out of The Lamb and call it a Platinum collection. What an insult to a true Genesis follower.Avoid at all costs.

I can't help but think people are being harsh on this compilation.After all its not aimed at fans of Genesis as a prog band but rather is meant to include music from all eras and so will appeal to those that want a decent collecyion without going and buying every single album which is quite expensive.Prog fans will already have it all.Non prog fans may hear the 3rd disc and develop a liking for prog rock...you never know!

This 3 CD best of Genesis collection is a mixed bag. It contains prog and pop songs from Genesis so if you're just interested in one of the two genres, you'll probably get a bit annoyed. However, you can't argue that about Genesis being good musicians and whatever they play, they do it really well. If you're a fan of Genesis you'll have the CDs you're interested in but if you have none or just one or two of their albums, this collection is a good place to hear a cross section of their music. What I particularly like about this collection is that it contains a booklet that gives pictures of all their album covers and shows from which albums all of the songs on the CDs come from. That is the best packaging I've ever seen on a Best Of collection. It's certainly quality music but only about a third of the songs are prog so beware!

The rating of this compilation depends on where you are within your Genesis collection. I am going to rate this a 3 star because I believe that it is a good addition to any prog music collection. Although it does not have all of the best of the progressive years, it does have The Cinema Show, Supper's Ready, The Musical Box, and Firth of Fifth, which I believe to be 4 of the 5 essential Genesis epics, with Watchers of the Skies being the fifth. (I specifically omitted The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, which is mildly represented here, but this whole album is an epic and needs to be heard as a whole).

If you have from a few to none of the Genesis albums, then this is an excellent introductory album to the entire Genesis career. It will give the listener at least one sample song from each of their albums throughout their career so then you can decide if you want to explore the various albums even further. Disc 1 covers their pop rock/AOR years. Disc 2 covers their crossover prog/progressive pop years. Disc 3 covers their progressive years when Peter Gabriel was the lead singer and Phil Collins was the drummer and mostly a backup singer.

An oddity of this compiliation is that the songs are travelling backwards chronologically so it is as though you are stepping in to a time machine and travelling backwards. Which I suppose could mean that this is regressive versus progressive? If you are more interested in seeing the development of Genesis, it might be in your best interest to listen to the tracks in reverse order starting with The Knife on CD 3.

If you have most or all of the Genesis albums, then this truly is a 2 star for collectors only. Most of the songs on discs 2 and 3 were remixed and might have a better sound quality than the original CDs that you may have purchased. There are no previously unreleased studio or live tracks here so there is no need to buy this unless you are a completionist. (To those that complain that this is a money grubbing compilation released by the record company, you may be right, but you have no requirement to buy it. And at least they didn't add anything that you couldn't already have elsewhere. I bought this album because I found it used and I do tend to be a bit of a completionist. I tend to be the sucker born every minute that the record companies are looking for when a band releases a greatest hit package that has a couple of previously unreleased or newly created tracks on it which I just must get because I have to have all of the songs that my favorite bands has ever done). Oh well, if I have to have an addiction it is at least safer and cheaper than drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.

If you are a Peter Gabriel era Genesis fan then this probably is not a compilation for you because for (1) you probably already have all of the Peter Gabriel era music and (2) you might not like the post-Peter Gabriel era music.

The is probably the ultimate Genesis sampler, spanning their entire career (although From Genesis to Revelation is absent altogether). It goes album by album, backwards chronologically, giving a few tracks from each. It also includes the 1982 single "Paperlate" from 3x3, as well as the title track off the Ray Wilson-fronted album Calling All Stations. This is not a "best of" collection (and even if it were, record companies frequently have a slightly skewed notion of the phrase "best of" means). Several of the tracks were remixed by sound engineer and producer Nick Davis. The obvious benefit of this compilation is that third CD; for those unaware of or with limited knowledge of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, that third CD might just be the doorway needed to transport some fans of the popular music to the glory that was Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Conversely, it could also serve the early-Genesis fan by giving him a broad overview of what Genesis was up to after guitarist Steve Hackett left. My biggest complaint regarding this compilation is actually with the booklet, which, although being well-written (giving a brief history of the band), the pages were not assembled in the correct order, making it irritating to read.

GENESIS - THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

Review by ProgKidJoel

This is an absolutley fantastic starting place for a newcomer to GENESIS, or indeed prog - It features many of the tracks which brought one of the 70's headlining prog acts to the front, aswell as a few B-Sides to keep the mix interesting and original.

Many members have complained about the poorness of this compilation - Its not for followers of Genesis, its for newcomers! Its made to compile many of their best and/or most popular tracks to give new listeners a sample of what to expect from a band, and its rarer and rarer that you see a compilation do this so well. Discs 1 and 2 feature tracks from the Phil Collins era of GENESIS, and these are all great tracks which give good samples of what to expect from Phil Collins' GENESIS. The third disc is what most proggers would call Genesis' best tracks from their best formation.

Disc one mostly features the band's radio hits, which although isn't great for a prog fan, is good for a newcomer to the band. Disc Two is composed of the bands proggier hits with Phil Collins, which are nearly all standouts in their own right - This also features a B-Side in PAPERLATE, which is a great pop track. Disc three features what I would call the definitive tracks of GENESIS, with FIRTH OF FIFTH, THE CINEMA SHOW, THE MUSICAL BOX and SUPPER'S READY and THE KNIFE.

All of these tracks are great, and my only dissapointment is the lack of a second disc with Gabriel - 9 tracks with Gabriel VS 31 tracks with Collins doesn't really add up properly. A second disc featuring some more Gabriel tracks (and more than ONE track from FOXTROT) would have been a nice addition to round out this collection, although it stands finely as it is.

Great for a newcomer to Genesis!

Enjoy! -Joel

Genesis Platinum Collection is the undisputed best compilation of this definitive progressive legendary band.

It features the essential classics of the Gabriel era and the best of the Collins era. It would have been better to have more of the Gabriel period but one good thing is that a fan can grab all the Gabriel era CDs and fill in the Collins void with this quite comfortably without having to fork out on the detestable 'Invisible Touch'. 'Abacab' and 'We Can't Dance'. All the singles that assaulted the charts are here along with bonafide Genesis classics.

The quintessential treasures are included in unedited format. "Foxtrot"'s 'Supper's Ready', all 23 minutes of it, are here in all its prog glory. Also the great 'Firth of Fifth' 'I Know What I like...' and 'Cinema Show' from "Selling England By The Pound" are included. There are 3 tracks from "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and 'The Knife' from "Trespass". 'The Musical Box' classic from "Nursery Cryme" also appears in unedited form. CD 3 is definitely the best capturing the Gabriel era beautifully. It is worth getting all these albums anyway so one CD is perhaps sufficient to get a taste of this early brilliant influential prog era.

The rest of the package is full blown Collins tracks but they are primarily very good compositions showing the transformation of the band in its many incarnations. CD 2 features 2 tracks from "Abacab", 4 of the best from "Duke" and 3 from " And Then there Were Three". 3 tracks from "Wind and Wuthering" are included and the three classics from "A Trick of the Tail".

CD 1 is the worst of the lot with 4 tracks from "We Can't Dance", 5 tracks from "Invisible Touch" as if that were necessary, and 5 tracks from the better "Genesis" album. There is a rare track from the EP "3x3" and thankfully only 1 track from the abysmal "calling All Stations".

Overall the packaging is excellent with a booklet with information on the tracks. The track list is as good as it can get without focusing on the early genesis period. It is a rather interesting journey to listen to it in its entirety showing how diverse the band are and how they metamorphosised from prog legends to 80s balladeers. Still as a collection of the best of the three phases of Genesis it is indispensable. My opinion is get this along with all the Gabriel era albums, including the 2 awesome 70s live albums, and you will have a very good Genesis collection without having to pay a small fortune for their prolific album discography. The next best thing is the box set collections, but as a budget experience of the best of all the Genesis albums, this is an excellent compilation.

4 stars for the experience.

This is probably the best one-stop career retrospective yet assembled for Genesis: three packed-to-the brim CDs spanning the band's entire de-evolution from Progressive music pioneers to stadium rock sell-outs. Each disc concentrates on a separate era, oddly enough arranged in reverse chronological order (more about that below). So the first disc begins with selections from the horribly commercial "We Can't Dance" (1991); the second disc continues backwards into the 1970s to the rebirth of "Trick of the Tail"; and the final disc catalogues the classic Peter Gabriel years, wrapping up the entire package (nearly four hours later in real time, but twenty years earlier historically) with "The Knife", their rousing early signature anthem off the 1970 "Trespass" album.

Too bad the actual aesthetic growth of the band didn't follow a similar trajectory.

Collections of this sort typically lean toward a group's more popular hits, so you can expect to hear radio fodder like "Follow You Follow Me" and the early embarrassment of "Your Own Special Way", not to mention all those post-"Abacab" blockbusters that earned the band a fortune while ruining their critical reputation. Listening to Disc One of this set (under duress), it's hard to believe Phil Collins was once an ace session drummer for hire, contributing to albums by cutting edge artists like JOHN CALE and ROBERT FRIPP.

But I digress. The good news here is that the band's best years are well represented, including nearly half of the classic1973 album "Selling England By the Pound", plus the entire, uncut masterpiece of "Supper's Ready", arguably the most influential Prog Rock epic ever written. And the bulk of Disc Two, covering the transitional post-Gabriel era, is at least shaded more toward the twilight Prog epiphanies leading to the "Duke" album.

Collectors won't find any non-album rarities here, unless you count the 1982 single "Paperlate", an "Abacab"-era outtake (ho hum). The anthology seems to be aimed instead at casual fans of the later, superstar pop trio, with the retrograde arrangement of tracks designed perhaps to lure unwary listeners gradually into the more subtle wonders of the band's back catalogue.

But it can also provide a decent stopgap purchase for long-time aficionados who can't afford to replace all their Famous Charisma Label LPs, and who don't mind at least one disc of crappy '80s fluff in their music library.

As a prog fan, you should immediately be disgusted by the thought of buying a 'Best Of' album, as prog songs generally work better within the context of their respective albums. However, as we are here, I might as well give a go of reviewing it.

There are 3 CDs here, on which the tracklist is in reverse chronological order (apart from the title track from 'Calling All Stations' released in 1997, which is at the end of disc 1). Hence the tracks run from No Son Of Mine and I Can't Dance on Disc 1, to The Musical Box and The Knife on Disc 3. The three discs correspond to the three Genesis boxsets that have been released, which are 1983-1998, 1976-1982 and 1970-1975 respectively. Therefore, the Gabriel-era material gets one disc all to itself. The obvious reason that this order has been chosen is that Genesis get less and less commercial as you go further back in time, and the sort of people who would buy a 'Platinum Collection' are the sort who want to hear Jesus He Knows Me, and might never get round to hearing Disc 3 anyway.

With this in mind, it is surprising that the people at Virgin decided to include any Gabriel stuff at all! Maybe some of them were progheads? More likely that there would be the obvious negative reaction from hardcore Genesis fans if they decided not to include any old material at all.

As a compilation, you probably couldn't ask for a better collection of songs to represent the whole of Genesis' 30 year career, from prog to pop, from good to bad. There are songs from each and every album, except for the debut 'From Genesis to Revelation' as Virgin could not secure the rights to that particular album. There is also a non-album track, Paperlate that was released on EP in 1982. One thing I find funny is that the first two poppier discs contain 16 and 15 tracks respectively, but the final prog disc only contains 9 tracks, due to the length of some of the songs. You have to love prog for being so long sometimes.

The selection of tracks is quite good. On the first two CDs, these are usually the bigger hits, which saves you having to root around purchasing loads of CDs you don't want just to hear Turn It On Again or other Genesis hits. With the Gabriel-era disc, they didn't skimp on the prog at all. Whilst they included the poppier Counting Out Time and I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), they include some of the best prog from Genesis, including The Knife, The Musical Box, Firth of Fifth and all 23 minutes of Supper's Ready. A veritable feast of prog, and certainly a risky move for such a commerical release. I actually recieved this compilation one Christmas, before I had heard any Genesis, and after listening to Disc 3, I was very convinced by the band.

This is a compilation album that does very much what it says on the tin. You get loads of Genesis songs, and a good understanding for the group at all points in their history. Along with that, there is some fantastic prog on Disc 3. Personally, I dislike buying compilation albums, but if you're the sort of person that needs a quick dose of Genesis, this album is for you.

Nothing special.

As an early fan of progressive music, I looked out for things like this. I tried to get the big collections that would give the largest scope on the classic bands, so I got In a Word by Yes, Best of by Emerson Lake & Palmer, and this. At the time I had little idea that Collins-era Genesis wasn't prog rock (I know, it's incredible), and I had an odd feeling that this wasn't what the band was all chocked up to be. As I maneuvered my way around the 3 discs of the collection, I eventually got to the third disk, which had fewer, longer tracks and a different singer (again at the time I did not know of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis). I was captivated by this newfound music, and with further research I got the whole scope of Genesis' transition from prog to pop and now look where I am, the owner of all the 70s records and the possessor of a quiet animosity towards post-1981 Genesis. This collection, while overall pretty pointless, did that for me and gave me a large scope of the band's musical imprint.

As a compilation, all the music has already been heard by countless people and has been reviewed by hundreds and hundreds of people, so me reviewing the tracks here as well would be wonderfully arbitrary. What I can say is that this is easily the most inclusive collection the band has released yet, reviewing every studio the band has released excluding the band's debut. The album shows the degeneration of a progressive rock classic in reverse order, either to build suspense for the best part (disc 3 - Peter Gabriel's material) or to appeal to the pop fans and put the good stuff at the end to hope they don't notice. Overall, however, the pop does overshadow the prog, with a solid 31 tracks on discs 1 and 2 (mainly the pop era except the few tracks tributing Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering) to 9 tracks on disc 3 (understandably, seeing as nearly all the songs are 8+ minutes). Sadly none of the standard PA ratings definitions apply here. I'll say this: this is good for someone who wants an all inclusive view of Genesis without getting any of the studio albums preliminarily. 2- stars.

I enjoy most of Genesis's work from Trespass to Wind & Wuthering - - the Hackett era - - plus a handful of songs after that, mainly on Duke and Abacab. But I'm not an expert. It seems like there's nothing on Platinum Collection that fans won't already have, even recognizing that many of these are remixes that only appear on more recent remastered CDs. So I'm working from the notion that this is clearly not a collection for serious Genesis fans; on the other hand, you have to be a little serious, don't you, to buy a 3-disk set, especially when there's a single-CD album with all of the group's hits?

There doesn't seem to be much point in quibbling over song selection on a set like this. Platinum Collection contains the kinds of songs that also appear on Genesis live albums, so when I picked it up in 2004, I knew most of the songs just from owning Seconds Out and Three Sides Live, and from having listened to the radio since the early 1980s. But I hadn't heard many of the studio versions of the songs on the second two disks, and I eventually bought nearly all of Genesis's studio albums. So in that respect, Platinum Collection served its purpose; it was like a gateway drug that got me into the hard stuff.

It's true, by the way, that the first disk is has the weakest material, and the mixes of only two of its 16 songs differ from the standard CDs. But overall, across the three disks, the material is very good, and the sound is too - - the new mixes vary in subtle ways from the originals, but on the whole they're warmer, which is something sorely needed on many of these songs,especially from the 1970s.

In all, Platinum Collection is a nice overview of Genesis's studio albums, only excluding the band's debut LP. Recommended for any fan of progressive rock who isn't already a Genesis fan or who doesn't already have most of their albums.