Rank your Genesis Albums...

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Lets see:   Shapes -1 Iván

Edited by Guillermo - January 16 2007 at 02:09

I feel the second half of 'Shapes' is very weak indeed. The first half is fine to excellent- Mama and Home By The Sea I think were reasonably successful updates of their 70s sound into the 80s, while That's All is reasonable AOR.

The second half though I think was rushed. 'Illegal Alien' is simply embarassingly dreadful, 'Just A Job To Do' and 'Taking It All Too Hard' are unmemorable imho, 'It's Gonna Get Better' I find quite dull- 'Silver Rainbow' is the best track of that half.

When asked about the album I think Mike Rutherford praised how consistently good the first side was but never even mentioned the second. Hmm... But that's just my opinion, of course.

I think all of the post Duke albums of the 80s had half a good album at best. Too many ballads and rather lacklustre R & B attempts gummed them up a lot of the time. I simply don't blame Phil Collins alone for that though- there were three members in the band. Two of them weren't Phil Collins. And Tony Banks 80s solo output and Mike and The Mechanics are scarcely better than Phil's solo stuff.

First - The six albums with Hackett chronologically

Mategra wrote: Guillermo wrote: Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Lets see:   Shapes -1 Iván     I agree with you. "Shapes" (aka the self-titled album) is their worst. It sounds like a "contract obligation album", IMO. It also brings me sad memories, so due to  the connection to those sad memories my rating for this album is maybe not very fair, but...most of the songs in this album are boring anyway. Even "Calling All Stations" is better!   I disagree with both of you. The self-titled album (aka "Shapes") is still 3-man-era-Genesis at their creative peak. I have always (since 1983) found it more interesting than "ATTWT",  slightly better than "Abacab", but not as good as "Duke". On the following albums "Invisible Touch" and "We Can't Dance" it's obvious that Banks/Collins/Rutherford began to run out of steam (as song-writers). It's perhaps a good thing that they made only two studio albums together the last ten years before Collins left.

Edited by Guillermo - January 16 2007 at 13:23

Atavachron wrote: [QUOTE=raindance] SEBTP is the one album that IMO dosn't belong in a graetest prog top 10. Gabriel's phoney accents is a put off for starters.[QUOTE] I like his theatrics, it was a natural extension of what the Beatles started and influenced Roger Water's pomp showmanship on the Wall.

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: 20. Shapes -1

I finally heard it. I just can't agree more. My review will follow. Abacab wasn't that bad, still haven't heard IT and WCD, but after listening to all-time-worst Genesis song "Illegal alien", I just don't see any way those two albums could be worse than this.

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: The T wrote: Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: 20. Shapes -1       I finally heard it. I just can't agree more. My review will follow. Abacab wasn't that bad, still haven't heard IT and WCD, but after listening to all-time-worst Genesis song "Illegal alien", I just don't see any way those two albums could be worse than this.   Illegal Alien the worst song?   No way, it's terrible but wait till you listen this deep lyrics:   Was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Was it a or was it b? Or was it x or z? Was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Was it a or was it b? Or was it x or z? Was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Was it a or was it b? Or was it x or z? Was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Who dunnit? I didnt, i, I didnt do it.... Oh but we know, we know, we know... So was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Was it a or was it b? Or was it x or z? Was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Was it a or was it b? Or was it x or z? Was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Was it a or was it b? Or was it x or z? Was it you or was it me? Or was it he or she? Was it you or was it me? Who dunnit? I, i, I didnt, I didnt do it... But we know, we know, we know... Yeah we dont know, we dont know, we dont know... We all know, we all know, we all know...   And even worst the music that goes with them.   Honestly, every song in Love Beach is a masterpiece compared with this "thing".   Iván

  Difficult thing to do but here it is:

The T wrote: Cristi wrote:   Difficult thing to do but here it is:      Selling England by the Pound    Foxtrot    And Then There Were three    Nursery Crymes    Wind and Wuthering    The Lamb Lies Down on Brodway    Tresspass    A Trick of the tail    Duke    Calling All Stations    From Genesis to Revelations    We Can't Dance    Genesis    Invisible touch    Abacab Incredible, at last somebody that likes ATTWT as much as I do. It's not a popular album around here as I see, and I don't understand... it's no FOX nor SEBTP but it has great songs.