CALLING ALL STATIONS

The virtually forgotten, and woefully under-appreciated tip of the Genesis tail is "Calling All Stations" the bands first and only "post-Phil" studio album. It was an unmitigated commercial flop. A tour promoting the album was 86'd halfway through in Europe and cancelled altogether in the States. That's a real shame, because musically it stands up to some of the best of Genesis. It contains (IMHO) one of the best cuts ever for the band in "Uncertain Weather" a moving song about an unknown soldier in an old photograph. The final cut "One Man's Fool" is an eerie condemnation of terrorism, describing a vivid 9/11 scene. Not so strange, except the album was released in 1997, almost exactly 4 years before the fateful day. If you are American this track will give you chills.

Like "We Can't Dance" "Calling All Stations" features cuts that harken back to the Genesis of old, along with those obviously tagged for radio play (Not About Us, If That's What You Need), as well as the 'Mike and Mechanicsish' "Don't Talk Back" All fine for this Genesis fan, but, in the end, radio audiences failed to embrace the somewhat curious choice of Ray Wilson to replace Phil Collins. That coupled with the even more curious choice of "Shipwrecked" as the first release- arguably the weakest cut on the album, and certainly the least 'Genesis-sounding' track, proved to be a lethal concoction rendering Calling All Stations dead on arrival. The die-hard Genesis fan wonders what the album would have accomplished commercially had Collins handled the vocals, and aided songwriting (and more importantly wonders how much better it would have sounded). Wilson's voice is often stretched, and the limits are obvious. Several of the songs were probably written with the belief Phil would be singing them. In fact, for Ray to cover several of Genesis Phil Collins led songs on tour, they had to be performed in a lower key. It could be, though, that the shadow of "We Can't Dance's" unbelievable multi-platinum commercial success was just too big to emerge from, and that the album was doomed regardless of the quality of the music, or whether or not Phil was at the mic. If you are a Neo-Genesis fan that enjoys the album cuts from We Can't Dance and Invisible Touch and you have not given Calling All Stations a whirl, find it and give it some spins. If you are an old fan that knows what "And Then There Were Three" means, you have the album somewhere so dig it up, blow off the dust, and give it a few dozen run-throughs.

While 'rediscovering' this LP over the last year, I have found that most of the reviews, including many the ones here, simply rehash many of the initial critical analysis, and that there seems to be very little original thought. I wonder if many Genesis fans simply wrote this work off without really ever listening to the album. Since discovering Genesis in the early 80's, I have never fully appreciated an album without many run-throughs. A love for a Genesis album starts with an appreciation and enjoyment for the most approachable tracks, and there are several on Calling All Stations. It ends when you no longer skip "Who Dunnit" while listening to Abacab (never really figured that one out, myself), and you realize how amazing the body of work is. If you read a review 12 years ago, ran through the tracks, said "man, they were right," and then shelved it, shame on you! :-) Give it another shot.