THE WATCH

Known as one of the best Gabriel-era Genesis cover band,The Watch finally treat us with an album taking the very first Genesis tunes from "From Genesis to Revelation" and give them a progressive update.The result is enjoyable.Musically speaking(if we don't count originaty) this is really the best album of them,with Stagnation being the most wonderful song they've ever recorded today(of course we have to thank Genesis for that). The main theme of this album is based on Genesis's "In the wildness",the opening and the ending instrumentals are almost direct citations of this song(which Genesis also cited this melody on the first few seconds of their track "The Conqueror" right after "In the wildness"). "Thunder has spoken",the first original song on this album,has almost the same chord change of the Genesis song "In the Beginning",the watch version is very poweful and sounds nicely.The next track,"One Day" bears the same name of a Genesis track,but they have no connection at all.This song has a good and memorable riff.After that wonderful track, we come to the center piece of this album,"In the wildness",the original version is a very nice ballroom track,here the Watch manage to present the song in a progressive way,with much more complex arrangments."Soaring on" is originally from their 2007 "Primitive" album,this version abondons the annoying programmed elertric drum sound,giving a new birth to this beautiful tune."Let us now make love" is a frigile and sad ballad of Genesis,the version here is much more upbeat."Scene of the crime" has hints from the Genesis track "In hiding",but it's not as effect as previous tracks on this album."End of the road" has a very promising name(as there's a radio hit with the same name),however,this one is a bit out of link on this album,the band have to add a instrumental tune of "In the wildness" to keep this track in place."Stagnation" sounds like a bonus,unlike other re-arranged covers,this track keeps every detail of the original version,the band perhaps don't even change a note.Of course this song is wonderfully played here,the drum part is even better than the Genesis version. OK,let give a sum up,3+ star is a right rate in my opinion.Why not higher? Because th band are going the WRONG way.Genesis is a great band and every member of it are pure geniuses.They know how to write wonderful melodies,and more importantly,they know how to present the RIGHT arrangement for their wonderful melodies,that's why their songs are masterpieces.It's true that the first Genesis album "From Genesis to Revelation" is not a prog album.That's because they didn't mean to make a prog album then.The tunes on that album are really very good on either folk or R&B standards.They are great,and can only be great when they are treated with simple but tasty arrangements.The Watch give them much more complex arragements,only to lower these great tunes into "good" level,that's not the right choice to do with Genesis music.(or we can all expect the Watch to do a remake version of "Invisible Touch" so that we'll have one more progressive track from the already marvolous Genesis discography).In conclusion,this album is a very pleasant one,but still far from any Genesis albums.

Good songs:"Thunder has spoken"(3+),"One Day"(3+),"In the wildness"(3+),"Soaring on"(3+),"Let us now make love"(3+),"Stagnation"(4+) Album rating:3+

The hunger for some good vintage GENESIS sounds led to the growing fame of The Watch, which performed several concerts after the release of ''Ghost'', even some very nice live bootlegs appeared, having caught the great energy of this band.However better things were still on the way.In 2004 The Watch released their second album on Lizard under the title ''Vacuum''.

The good potentional as listened to the ''Ghost'' finally transformed into some excellent musicianship on ''Vacuum''.Awesome Retro-Prog in a GENESIS mold with tons of acoustic textures, swirling synths and of course huge Mellotron waves.Additionally the sound of The Watch finally seems to find its own identity, though the GENESIS influence is still the leading force.The performances became even more dramatic and intricate, the guitar melodies are pretty memorable and the vocal harmonies of Rossetti are just delicious.Compositionally the band made a step forward, combining the Symphonic Rock aesthetics delivered under the nostalgic analog keys with the modern guitar sounds of Salati, featuring among others plenty of instrumental breaks between acoustic and electric themes as well as some more complexity.This is some very consistent and highly theatrical Symphonic Rock all the way.

Forget any cheap GENESIS clones out there.The Watch and ''Vacuum'' are among the better ones, if not the best, and this album comes highly recommended for all lovers of vintage Progressive Rock.

Oh dear. Normally The Watch take a bit longer between their albums, but it's evident that after Planet Earth? they felt as though they were on a creative roll and made Timeless in short order. Unfortunately, the album suffers from much as the same problems as its predecessor - to wit, the band had ceased presenting a cleverly updated version of the Genesis sound and just became a carbon copy of it. In the case of Timeless, this becomes particularly blatant when they present cover versions of early Genesis songs! Whilst the version of Stagnation is noteworthy for being completely indistinguishable from the original, at the same time I sorely miss the Watch who would occasionally impress me by doing something new with the Genesis sound. Oh well.

I'm usually quite favourably disposed towards The Watch, because whilst they are an unabashed Genesis clone band they are at least able to present a skillful blend of the modern and the nostalgic, with their music resembling the classic Genesis sound with a sprinkling of more current touches. On Planet Earth, however, The Watch seem to have brushed those sprinkes aside in favour of more direct and (to my ears) unoriginal Genesis worship. It's all a pleasant enough listen, of course, but this time around the band seem to be low on inspiration - and that's never something I like to hear happening to a band I like, because who knows when they'll get it back?

The Watch (and predecessor band The Night Watch) have a sound which is essentially built around Simone Rossetti's uncanny ability to mimic Peter Gabriel's style in Genesis. A lazier band would leave it at that, knocking off third-rate Genesisalike songs for Simone to sing on, but the band have never been content to do that. As with the preceding Vacuum, Primitive takes the Genesis sound forward in a startling different direction from the one the band took - it's as though after Nursery Cryme the band started dabbling with space rock and began incorporating a range of more cutting-edge synthesisers into their sound as opposed to the tried and trusted keyboards they stuck with.

It might be a minor difference in approach, but it adds an intriguing twist to the Genesis sound which means that Primitive, like Vacuum, feels like it's doing a little more than merely wallowing in nostalgia.

The Watch once again pull off their trick of creating a sound which is both thoroughly modern and updated and yet at the same time 100% rooted in the classic Gabriel-era Genesis sound on Vacuum, but they also slip in here and there a few intriguing influences from beyond Genesis; for instance, on the closing track Vacuum I detect a few spacey touches and a gentle hint of an almost Gong-like sense of humour. Once again, The Watch show how to do the clone band thing right; only those whose hearts are completely hardened towards clone bands could hold their Genesis mimicry against them when they do it this well.

Not to be deterred by the end of his previous project, The Night Watch, Simone Rossetti gathered together a new lineup, who would call themselves The Watch in reference to the earlier band, and together the assembled musicians would continue their fallen predecessor's mission to revive the sound of early Genesis - with enough modern twists and turns to the compositions to create a compelling idea of what the classic-era Genesis sound might have evolved into if the band had extrapolated the direction of Selling England or Nursery Cryme forward by a few decades.

Original? Not even slightly. But like The Night Watch before them, The Watch show every evidence of really understanding the Genesis approach inside and out, and so they are able to create far more satisfying compositions than most clone bands. If one must be a retro-prog clone band, this is the absolute best way to do it.

"The best album Genesis never made." Huh. Yes, there are lot of things pointing directly at Nursery Cryme/Foxtrot era, but also they miss MANY things that Genesis had at that time: memorable compositions, sense of drama that made their epic songs so powerful, sensitivity, more varied sound in music and vocals, pastoral feel, and so on.

This album (or this Italian band in general, if their all albums are like this one) offers thick and, to some degree, depressing prog rock loaded with Mellotron, heavy guitars and a *very* Peter Gabriel sounding front man Simone Rossetti who writes the music and also plays flute (where he did that idea from? Ha ha). They sound so much like (certain heavier moments of) old Genesis that it's difficult - for a person who almost grew up into prog with albums of Genesis among others - not to be intrigued by it at all. But apart from that, I wasn't very impressed. And isn't the world full of Genesis-clones? One quite similar with The Watch is CITIZEN CAIN, especially on the stuffy Gabriel-esque vocals (and DISCIPLINE, but their prior influence is VDGG instead of Genesis).

Let's face it: I probably never would have become a Genesis-listener if their music was like this and nothing else. And if I wasn't today so strongly on an ever-expanding prog journey turning every available stone on the way that seems even slightly interesting, I wouldn't really care about this music. Generally they are a bit too heavy for my taste but I must agree that they do well what they are doing. So, by all means, give it a try: many reviewers have praised this heavily.

The Watch is the physical transformation of The Nightwatch,the band lead singer Simone Rossetti found in mid-90's in Milano.The Nightwatch disbanded after Rossetti had serious problems establishing a stable line-up.By the dawn of the century Rossetti decided to make a new start under the name ''The Watch'' having guitarist Ettore Salati,bassist Marco Schembri,drummer Roberto Leoni and keyboardist Gabriele Manzini by his side.The debut of the band ''Ghost'' was released in 2001 on Italian label Lizard.

Despite the massive changes on the line-up,the sound of the band hasn't changed a bit compared to the Nightwatch'es ''Twilight''.Pure Retro-Symphonic Rock in the vein of GENESIS with mainly long tracks and constantly changing atmospheres.Rossetti continues to sound a lot like Gabriel and perform in a very theatrical way.Keyboard work is great featuring plenty of intricate mellotron,piano and organ parts,while guitarist Ettore Salati delivers some inspiring melodic plays.The compositions continue to be rich and captivating with both dark and lighter parts,grandiose atmospheres and soft interplays.However,the band still is on the way to find a more personal style and become immediately recognizable.

I found ''Ghost'' to be an excellent release for anyone searching for some good old-GENESIS sounding prog,but the album fails a bit next to the Nightwatch'es only album,lacking in the stunning melodies of ''Twilight''.However this remains a really good and recommended addition for any Retro-Prog fan of nowadays...3.5 stars.

What I like about THE WATCH is that when you buy one of their albums you know what your getting. Sure some albums are better than others and "Vacuum" is still my favourite, but listening to their music is like visiting an old friend. There's a certain contentment and satisfaction involved with their sound because it sounds so much like the source of Progressive music.This one's a little different in that they've gone as far as to actually include three GENESIS covers. Normally i'd say that wasn't the best idea except that the two on the studio album here are from "Genesis To Revelation" which i've never heard before, then there's "Stagnation" from "Trespass" which is on here as a bonus track. And I must say that "Stagnation" stands alone as the best song on here. Oh, and there's plenty of mellotron on this album too.

"The Watch" is acoustic guitar and vocal led then we get some atmosphere as it blends into "Thunder Has Spoken". It kicks in fairly quickly with vocals.The guitar sounds different here and synths lead after 3 minutes. "One Day" is pastoral with acoustic guitar and vocals before it kicks into gear.These contrasts will continue. An excellent track. "In The Wilderness" is the first GENESIS cover. Even before I knew this was a cover I could tell from the lyrics that this had GENESIS written all over it. Check out the pulsating organ as well. Great sounding tune.

"Soaring On" just hits me emotionally for some reason. Acoustic guitar and flute to start as reserved vocals join in. Simply beautiful. Majestic mellotron 3 minutes in. If "In The Wilderness" had those typical GENESIS lyrics then the rearranged GENESIS track "Let Us Now Make Love" has very untypical lyrics as far as a GENESIS song goes. It kicks in with pulsating organ and drums standing out as vocals join in. So GENESIS-like. Wait a minute. It settles back as contrasts continue. A good groove to this one and John Hackett adds some flute too. "Scene Of The Crime" is piano and vocal led early. It picks up around 1 1/2 minutes.Vocal melodies a minute later then distorted keys ?

"End Of The Road" opens with pulsating keys with mellotron and outbursts of sound. It settles in with vocals before a minute. I like the guitar and organ that come to the fore everytime the vocals stop. "Exit" is a short piano piece. "Stagnation" features acoustic guitar and vocal melodies before the vocals come in. Haunting keyboards 2 minutes in. It kicks in after 3 minutes. My God ! Emotion. A calm with flute follows then acoustic guitar and vocals kick in at 6 minutes. So good. Simone rules !

I would rate this as my third favourite THE WATCH album after "Vacuum" and "Planet Earth ?".