Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Genesis
Label: Virgin Records
Released: 1992
Rating: 2.5/5
“The Way We Walk – Volume One – The Shorts” is the first of two live records taken from the “We Can’t Dance” tour and the band’s fourth live album. It’s dominated by mostly shorter, commercial songs, basically their biggest hits like “Invisible Touch”, “I Can’t Dance”, “Land Of Confusion”, “No Son Of Mine”, “Mama” and so on. In other words, tracks pulled from their three most commercially successful albums, namely ”Genesis” (1983), “Invisible Touch” (1986) and “I Can’t Dance” (1991). Plenty of fans of the progressive, classic-era Genesis won’t be satisfied with this pick, since there isn’t a single song from the prog days, just the biggest pop hits. Anyone who can’t stomach the commercial face of Genesis can go for the other live album from this tour, “The Way We Walk – Volume Two – The Longs” (1993). Everybody else can revel in these recordings of the most commercial Genesis imaginable, the band that, at the cost of its own credibility, delighted the “MTV generation” and filled stadiums around the world like it was nothing.
The performances are, as you’d expect from such perfectionists and masters as Genesis, excellent. Most of the songs sound like they were played in the studio, since they follow the original versions extremely faithfully, and most of them are actually played even better live. Special praise goes to all the added guitar solos from Messrs. Rutherford and Stuermer. That goes especially for the one on “No Son Of Mine” (We Can’t Dance, 1991), which is truly first-rate, while on “Jesus He Knows Me” (We Can’t Dance, 1991), which has no guitar solo at all in the studio version, you can hear one loud and clear on this recording. The version of “That’s All” (Genesis, 1983) is interesting too, with the guitar far more distorted than on the studio version, which makes the whole song even more appealing. Even if you set the solos aside, the guitar is clearly audible on these live recordings in general, much better than on most of the studio versions of these songs. Standouts in terms of performance are “Land Of Confusion” (Invisible Touch, 1986) with its improved rhythm and “Mama” (Genesis, 1983), which is played here with even more feeling, though it’s a bit less dark in mood than the original. The rest of the songs stick faithfully to their originals, just with more added atmosphere, with the exception of “I Can’t Dance” (We Can’t Dance, 1991), which lacks improvisation, and “Tonight Tonight Tonight” (Invisible Touch, 1986), which appears here in a shortened version. The romantic ballads “Hold On My Heart” (We Can’t Dance, 1991), “Throwing It All Away” and “In To Deep” (both Invisible Touch, 1986) are all played better than the originals, but they’ll mostly appeal to fans of Collins’ solo career, while most of the traditional fans of the band will be busy doing something else. Right at the end comes the ultra-hit “Invisible Touch” (Invisible Touch, 1986), the “crown jewel” of commercial Genesis, which still sounds better than the studio version, because Banks’ synthetic 80s synths are swapped here for a more modern version.
Still, one question remains: why did the label split these live recordings into two parts instead of releasing them as a double album, when the two halves represent two different musical worlds of the band? But that way “The Shorts” is actually an excellent compilation of their biggest pop hits live, a real treat for all the fans of the band’s commercial era. That’s exactly why this is a live album meant only for fans of Collins’ solo career, commercial Genesis, and those rare fans of the band who love both eras, the progressive and the commercial. On the other hand, “The Shorts” is totally unsuitable as a random “starting point” for Genesis “live” for anyone just getting to know the band’s live work, because it’s so one-sided, focused purely on their pop hits, i.e. their three most commercially successful albums. This live album was followed by “The Way We Walk – Volume Two – The Longs” (1993), which features their longer compositions and will mostly interest those who simply can’t stand this legendary band’s “commercial sellout”.
Lineup
Phil Collins – vocals, drums, percussion
Mike Rutherford – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals
Tony Banks – keyboards, backing vocals
Guest musicians:
Daryl Stuermer – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals
Chester Thompson – drums and percussion
Production
Nick Davis, Robert Colby and Genesis
Tracklist
1. Land Of Confusion (5:16)
2. No Son Of Mine (7:05)
3. Jesus He Knows Me (5:23)
4. Throwing It All Away (6:01)
5. I Can’t Dance (6:54)
6. Mama (6:50)
7. Hold On My Heart (5:40)
8. That’s All (4:58)
9. In Too Deep (5:36)
10. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (3:35)
11. Invisible Touch (5:41)
Album length: 62:59
