GENESIS REVISITED II

It seems that this album falls into two camps. The first group are people who want Mr. Hackett to recreate Peter Gabriel's Genesis almost note for note, while adding small touches and cleaning up the sound. The second group wants SH to continue in the vein of the first Genesis Revisited, where SH followed his singular muse and reinterpreted Genesis' songs. Listeners looking for a work like the first Revisited will be disappointed.

Hackett played this set very close to the originals, while the sound is stellar, I just find myself looking to pull out the originals. His choice to use 5 vocalists to cover Supper's Ready was brilliant. But there are many tracks were I don't agree with the vocal choices. With the music being close to the original and the vocals detracting, it feels in many places like a cover band. While the first Revisited had some misses, I applauded the effort and was amazed at some of the interpretations. Here, there isn't much new going on.

By no means is this a bad album and its occasionally very good, I don't see myself playing this one much. I want to give it 4 stars but it falls just short.

3 stars, with the right to add a star later on after some more spins.

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10 months later have found I had to come back and change my original thoughts. I still believe that on most occasions, the originals are better, I find myself playing and enjoying GR II more and more. Definitely a 4 star album