THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

The rating of this compilation depends on where you are within your Genesis collection. I am going to rate this a 3 star because I believe that it is a good addition to any prog music collection. Although it does not have all of the best of the progressive years, it does have The Cinema Show, Supper's Ready, The Musical Box, and Firth of Fifth, which I believe to be 4 of the 5 essential Genesis epics, with Watchers of the Skies being the fifth. (I specifically omitted The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, which is mildly represented here, but this whole album is an epic and needs to be heard as a whole).

If you have from a few to none of the Genesis albums, then this is an excellent introductory album to the entire Genesis career. It will give the listener at least one sample song from each of their albums throughout their career so then you can decide if you want to explore the various albums even further. Disc 1 covers their pop rock/AOR years. Disc 2 covers their crossover prog/progressive pop years. Disc 3 covers their progressive years when Peter Gabriel was the lead singer and Phil Collins was the drummer and mostly a backup singer.

An oddity of this compiliation is that the songs are travelling backwards chronologically so it is as though you are stepping in to a time machine and travelling backwards. Which I suppose could mean that this is regressive versus progressive? If you are more interested in seeing the development of Genesis, it might be in your best interest to listen to the tracks in reverse order starting with The Knife on CD 3.

If you have most or all of the Genesis albums, then this truly is a 2 star for collectors only. Most of the songs on discs 2 and 3 were remixed and might have a better sound quality than the original CDs that you may have purchased. There are no previously unreleased studio or live tracks here so there is no need to buy this unless you are a completionist. (To those that complain that this is a money grubbing compilation released by the record company, you may be right, but you have no requirement to buy it. And at least they didn't add anything that you couldn't already have elsewhere. I bought this album because I found it used and I do tend to be a bit of a completionist. I tend to be the sucker born every minute that the record companies are looking for when a band releases a greatest hit package that has a couple of previously unreleased or newly created tracks on it which I just must get because I have to have all of the songs that my favorite bands has ever done). Oh well, if I have to have an addiction it is at least safer and cheaper than drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.

If you are a Peter Gabriel era Genesis fan then this probably is not a compilation for you because for (1) you probably already have all of the Peter Gabriel era music and (2) you might not like the post-Peter Gabriel era music.