TIMELESS

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+