CALLING ALL STATIONS

I don`t consider this album as their "worst", as I consider their "Genesis" album from 1983 as their "worst" album. So maybe this album deserves 1 and a half stars. The main responsibilities of the quality of this album fell to Banks and Rutherford, who composed almost all the songs (with 2 or 3 songs with Ray Wilson`s colaborations) before they chose the new singer. Maybe the main problem with this album is that is a "Dark" album from start to finish, including the cover design. Ray Wilson is a good singer, but I think that his voice wasn`t right for GENESIS. Banks and Rutherford did a "brave move" with this album, but unfortunately, the songs are almost with the same "colours", I mean, "Dark". The quality of the recording of this album is very good, and both drummers played very good too. There are some good songs:tracks 1 to 6 (particularly "Alien Afternoon" and "If That`s What You Need", a very good song which could have been sung very well by Phil Collins, and it could have been a hit if they released this song as a single instead of "Congo"). "One Man`s Fool" is another interesting song, one of the best. The rest of the songs also have some interesting things, but sometimes they are too long, or have some sections which are repetitive, or even some keyboard solos similar as on previous albums (like the synth solo in "There Must Be Some Other Way", which seems played very similar as the solo in "Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea" from the "Genesis" album of 1983, almost with the same synth sound). This album was successful mainly in the U.K. and Europe, but unfortunately for GENESIS it wasn`t successful in North America and in other parts of the world. So, their North American tour was canceled, and the album went out of print in the U.S. some years ago. Another thing which didn`t help GENESIS was their "DarK" image in the promotional photos and in the video for "Congo". Also, Wilson is younger several years than Banks and Rutherford, maybe too much younger. Maybe they should have chosen a singer more of their own age, in my opinion.It seems that there were plans for more albums with Wilson as singer, but in the mid of the year 2000, it was announced that Wilson wasn`t anymore their singer, and in September 2000 Collins appeared with Banks and Rutherford (and Daryl Stuermer) in a special almost acoustic mini-concert dedicated to their manager Tony Smith, who won an award as manager. It seems that it was a "one-off" concert, and since then there have been many rumours about GENESIS reforming with Collins and also sometimes with Gabriel and Hackett.Chester Thompson said in one interview that he approached Banks and Rutherford (when he learned that Collins have left the band) and asked them about becoming GENESIS`s official member and drummer, but they said "no" to Thompson.