THE CARPET CRAWLERS 1999 PROMO CD

I read some years ago in the web that Steve Hackett said in an interview about this 1999 version of this song something like this: "...well...everybody just phoned their parts to the studio". Well. I think that he meant that this "nineties reunion of the classic line-up" was not really true in the sense of them really collaborating and recording their parts together. This version was produced by Trevor Horn, and he also had to use some extra musicians to fill the sound (keyboard players and programmers). This is not a bad version, but it lacks the last verse of the lyrics, which apparently was going to be sung by Ray Wilson, a thing which did not happen. It is clear that at least Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins contributed singing all the vocals in this version of this song (with Collins also adding his drums to a previous programmed drums part), but Steve Hackett`s parts are limited to a few seconds in some parts, I think. I also think that I can listen to Mike Rutherford playing guitar. But being this project the way it was done,one never can be sure about who really did the arrangements and the playing of the other instruments, particularly of the keyboards. This radio edit is similar to the full lenght version which was released in the "Turn It On Again - The Hits" compilation CD from 1999, but one minute and 35 seconds shorter.

For collectors / fans only.

#45 Review

At first this version seems innofensive until the weird percussion, digital effects and piano become more prominent, i really dislike this version, if this sound is what was going to be for Genesis to re-release the old stuff or to make new music, i'd rather they not.

Its as if The Carpet Crawlers became infected by every sin commited musically on the 90s, at the peak of Phil and Peter being annoying with voice fills and where they both where doing this heavily reggae/electronic low uninspired slow... bad music. At the same time, this version has almost no direction where it tries to go, it is clearly just a bunch of instrumental parts meshed together however the engineers/mixers wanted it, people that had no idea about music, zero respect for the original version while also being unoriginal by copying trends, the only thing that could've made this worse is if they added rapping.

At the end of the day is still Carpet Crawlers... or is it? We have an incomplete version here that misses a verse, the very prominent keyboard on the original piece that was composed on a keyboard is almost completely absent, this version lacks the energy of the original and by the end, the lyrics and basic structure become just second place, the entire composition has been drained of its life.

You can't get lower than this in my standards, i give it a 4/100, i would give it 0 Stars, as a fan i didn't enjoy it and it seems that the majority didn't either, this release floped hard on every department imaginable, literally no one wants it.