Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Genesis
Label: Virgin Records
Release: 1991
Rating: 2.5/5
After “Invisible Touch” (1986), their most commercially successful album, the legendary band took a long break. Plenty of people figured they’d never be back, mostly because of the huge solo fame Collins was enjoying at the time, but they got together again anyway and made another hugely successful and musically very solid pop rock record. Once again, though, it didn’t satisfy the band’s old-school fans, who were hoping they’d go back to the old progressive sound and style they’d always been best known and loved for. With superstar Collins out front, that was impossible, and on “We Can’t Dance” his solo influence is almost even more dominant than on “Invisible Touch”, while the other two members, original members at that, Banks and Rutherford, are pretty much reduced to his backing musicians. So once again the album is packed with pop ballads and songs that mostly sit at a mid-tempo plod. On the other hand, the lyrics have become a bit smarter and more sarcastic again, mostly dealing with the social problems of the day and a little less with Collins’s heart troubles. Still, there’s very little here for fans of classic Genesis. Longer instrumental stretches and Banks’s brilliant solos are only here as a sample. So when you listen to “We Can’t Dance”, forget everything great you ever associated with the band and get ready for Genesis in their most radio-friendly getup, with a “waxed” production.
The first four songs on the album, the hit singles, are all very solid pop rock tracks, almost devoid of prog elements, but quality stuff. “No Son Of Mine” is a good opening pop number, one of the better ones they made in their pop era, even if it sounds more like a Collins solo track. “Jesus He Knows Me”, with its interesting riff and sarcastic lyrics about TV preachers, will appeal to anyone with a pinch of humor. The ambitious, 10-plus-minute “Driving The Last Spike” has a good rhythm line and even a few prog elements, but they’re muted by the soft pop production, which waters down the whole song a bit. Another hit, “I Can’t Dance”, has a lively thread and a good Rutherford riff plus a sarcastic lyric, but don’t listen to it too much, because you’ll get sick of it pretty quickly. The ballad “Never A Time” is the first of many saccharine Collins ballads on this album, and that’s exactly what takes away the credibility of the whole thing as a Genesis group effort. It’s just one of the boring tracks on the album that the listener forgets right away. “Dreaming While You Sleep” is an ambitiously conceived song, but it loses the plot a bit thanks to a sleepy rhythm, ending up as a not-so-successful hybrid between a Collins ballad and a prog epic. “Tell Me Why” is pure Collins solo, the kind of thing that could easily sit on the soundtrack of some Disney cartoon. So, no further comment needed. The very good and slightly overlooked “Living Forever” has a great Banks solo in the second half and a superb drum groove, which puts it among the best and most ambitious songs on the album. The saccharine hit ballad “Hold On To My Heart” is once again a pure Collins solo number and, at best, great for dozing off after a wild night out. “Way of the World” is a solid pop number, even though it’s dull in places. It’s a surprise it wasn’t a hit. “Since I Lost You” is the real saccharine horror, a track that belongs on a Collins solo album and one of the lowest points in the band’s history. The closing “Fading Lights” saves the album from total disaster, the only song here you could call progressive. This melancholic epic, built on an oriental rhythm, is essentially Collins’s farewell song to the band and easily the best track on the album. And this is where the “forgotten genius” Tony Banks finally comes alive too, with a traditional Genesis keyboard solo, reminding us that there once was a band cut from a completely different cloth. “Fading Lights” is thus a fitting and dignified goodbye from Collins to the band, marking the end of yet another Genesis era, and a decent finale to this rather boring and creatively impoverished album.
As a pop rock album or a Collins solo project, I could only talk about “We Can’t Dance” in superlatives. As a Genesis album, though, “We Can’t Dance” is definitely one of the lowest points in the band’s career. What bugs me most is the length. More than 70 minutes is absolutely too much for that pile of boring, superfluous pop ballads in the middle of the album, which could have been on any Collins solo record and which damage the atmosphere of the whole thing. Above all, the sleepy production literally kills the album, and it’s the only record by the band where I sometimes feel real boredom during some of the songs and even get hit by drowsiness. Compared to “Invisible Touch”, this album lacks bite, mostly thanks to the production, even though overall it has more interesting songs and is therefore a slight step forward in that respect. Still, while listening you often get the feeling that you’re hearing some Collins solo project. “We Can’t Dance” is therefore an album that fans of his solo career will really like. For the average Genesis fan, though, “We Can’t Dance” is a seriously boring record, pretty much the creative bottom of the band, since with a few exceptions the band sounds tired and even worn out for the first time. Collins’s departure not long after the tour for this album was inevitable. His solo career took too heavy a toll, which least of all benefited the very band that had done the most to make him famous, at the price of losing its own credibility. Collins leaving then benefited the band, who on the next album briefly breathed with full lungs again, but on the other hand it was the final nail in Genesis’s coffin.
Lineup
Phil Collins – vocals, drums, percussion
Mike Rutherford – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals
Tony Banks – keyboards, backing vocals
Production
Genesis, Nick Davis
Track list
1. No Son Of Mine (6:38)
2. Jesus He Knows Me (4:16)
3. Driving The Last Spike (10:08)
4. I Can’t Dance (4:01)
5. Never A Time (3:50)
6. Dreaming While You Sleep (7:15)
7. Tell Me Why (4:58)
8. Living Forever (5:41)
9. Hold On My Heart (4:37)
10. Way Of The World (5:38)
11. Since I Lost You (4:09)
12. Fading Lights (10:16)
Album length: 71:26
