Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Genesis
Label: Virgin Records
Released: 1999
Rating: 3/5
After the release of the excellent box set “Archive Vol. 1: 67-75”, which covered the Gabriel era, it was only a matter of time before a second box followed, similar in scope but devoted exclusively to the Collins era. That one did show up a few years later (more on it in another review), but before that Virgin Records decided to make a little extra cash and launched this compilation on the music market. It collects all the band’s biggest hits and works as a kind of dress rehearsal for that box set. For people who know Genesis only as a pop band with a pile of hit singles, and who often lump those in with the ones from Collins’ solo career, this release is tailor-made, because it has all their biggest hits, the ones that (especially in the 80s) were on practically nonstop rotation on radio stations. Sure, Genesis recorded most of their best work in the 70s, but with three exceptions (all three are on this compilation) none of it was a hit, so only two tracks here come from the Gabriel era, and one of those is completely re-recorded. I’ll give that one a bit more attention in this review.
Most of the picks are, of course, from their two commercially most successful albums, “Invisible Touch” (1987) and “We Can’t Dance” (1991), which brought them the most hit singles. Here you get “Invisible Touch”, “Land Of Confusion”, “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”, etc., as well as “I Can’t Dance”, “Jesus He Knows Me”, “No Son Of Mine”, etc. There’s also “Mama”, “That’s All” (Genesis, 1983), “Abacab” (Abacab, 1981), “Turn It On Again”, “Misunderstanding” (Duke, 1980) and “Follow You, Follow Me” (And Then There Were Three, 1978), the track that kicked off their transformation from prog rock icons into pop rock icons. A few hits from this period are missing, like “Duchess” (Duke, 1980), “Man On The Corner”, “Keep It Dark” (both Abacab, 1981), “Paperlate” (Three Sides Live, 1982 – the US version) or “Illegal Alien” (Genesis, 1983), but you won’t lose much sleep over them. It’s a bit of a surprise that they remembered “Congo”, which comes from their (most likely) final, rather lonely and fairly overlooked studio album, “Calling All Stations” (1997), recorded with Ray Wilson (Stiltskin, solo) on vocals. From the Gabriel era there are only the evergreen “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” (Selling England By the Pound, 1973), without which no Genesis compilation can really exist, and a re-recorded version of “Carpet Crawlers” (the original comes from “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway”, 1974). That one was re-recorded in 1999, when the band got back together in the classic lineup for a very short time, and Gabriel and Collins trade off on lead vocals, which is sure to thrill plenty of fans. This version is expanded with some extra keyboard sounds and slightly altered opening lyrics. A very sly move, luring the band’s biggest fans into buying the release, since they don’t want to be without a single thing the band ever recorded. For many, that will be the main reason to pick up this set of hits. Still, it’s an interesting mix of tracks, and sometimes it’s genuinely fun to hear, say, “I Know What I Like” squeezed between the stylistically completely different “Abacab” and “No Son Of Mine”. For a hits collection like “Turn It On Again – The Hits”, chronological order would have been just a bit too predictable. And as it is, apart from “Carpet Crawlers” it offers nothing new that fans of the band haven’t already heard.
The new version of “Carpet Crawlers”, which wasn’t released anywhere else, is a very handy mousetrap for all those fans who don’t like the band’s pop era and reject everything they put out from around 1980 on. For those people, this compilation carries a clear message hidden in its subtitle, “The Hits”. “Turn It On Again – The Hits” is aimed first and foremost at fans who have to own absolutely everything the band ever released, and at everyone who knows Genesis only as an 80s pop attraction and has never heard their real masterpieces. For fans of prog rock and the “serious” Genesis, there’s precious little of interest here, so they won’t miss a thing if they skip this release, which was meant mainly to gather up all their biggest smashes and cash in a bit more before the second box set came out, the one covering the Collins era, called “Archives Vol. 2: 1976-1992”. If nothing else, this set of hits can nicely liven up those hours spent driving in your car.
Lineup
Peter Gabriel – vocals (9, 18), flute (9)
Steve Hackett – guitar (9, 18)
Mike Rutherford – guitar (1-8, 10-17), bass guitar, backing vocals (1-18)
Tony Banks – keyboards, backing vocals
Phil Collins – drums, percussion (1-12, 14-18), vocals (1-8, 10-12, 14-17, second part of 18)
Production
Genesis, Hugh Padgham,Nick Davis, John Burns and Trevor Horn
Track list
1. Turn It On Again (3:49)
2. Invisible Touch (3:26)
3. Mama (hits edit) (5:18)
4. Land Of Confusion (4:44)
5. I Can’t Dance (3:59)
6. Follow You Follow Me (3:58)
7. Hold On My Heart (4:37)
8. Abacab (hits edit) (4:10)
9. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) (4:04)
10. No Son Of Mine (hits edit) (5:44)
11. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (single edit) (4:28)
12. In Too Deep (4:56)
13. Congo (hits edit) (4:02)
14. Jesus He Knows Me (4:16)
15. That’s All (4:24)
16. Misunderstanding (3:11)
17. Throwing It All Away (3:49)
18. Carpet Crawlers (1999 Re-recording) (5:39)
Album length: 78:58
