Genesis

The second of the three Genesis box sets comes out roughly six months after the first one, and is probably the one that will sell the most out of the the three. That's because it contains the most popular albums Genesis has ever sold. They are:

• Genesis - 1983
• Invisible Touch - 1986
• We Can't Dance - 1991
• Calling All Stations - 1997

Well, OK - the last one wasn't one of their most popular, but the other three are. All four are well represented with extra tracks, interviews, etc..

Each of the albums have been remastered and cleaned up with a new 2007 mix. Some audiophiles (or as I call them bitrate bigots) complain about the mixes. Sigh. They've never sounded as good to me. Disc 2 contains a DVD audio 5.1 / DTS mix of the album if you have that kind of equipment to benefit from it. It also has new interview footage, and related video materials for the specific album they appear on.

If you buy the box set as opposed to buying the albums individually, you get an additional booklet which talks about each album, the band, etc... It also has an additional disc which contains a lot of the leftover and oddball tracks from this time. There are eight additional studio tracks on the bonus disc, comprising essentially another album's worth of material.

If you're a Genesis fan, you're probably going to want this, as there's a wealth of extras. Buying the individual discs will get you everything except the last bonus disc & DVD as well as the booklet. If you're a completist, you'll want the box, not the individual releases.

Also, in my CD blog here I list each of the albums individually, despite my getting them in this box set. I did that so I could list remarks about the music from the individual albums themselves, in addition to my comments about the box set itself here.

Well, this is the first of three Genesis box sets to be released, which will cover their entire career. This one covers from the time just after Peter Gabriel left, Steve Hackett's departure, and the first three "Genesis trio" albums. It is very much the "middle" box set, because this time in the band's career shows the early artsy kind of feel they had, the transitional period, and the beginning of the mostly pop era Genesis.

Each of the albums have been remastered and cleaned up with a new 2007 mix. Some audiophiles (or as I call them bitrate bigots) complain about the mixes. Sigh. They've never sounded as good to me. Disc 2 contains a DVD audio 5.1 / DTS mix of the album if you have that kind of equipment to benefit from it. It also has new interview footage, and related video materials for the specific album they appear on.

This box set contains 5 Genesis studio albums. They are:

• A Trick of the Tail - 1976
• Wind & Wuthering - 1976
• ...And Then There Were Three... - 1978
• Duke - 1980
• Abacab - 1982

If you buy the box set as opposed to buying the albums individually, you get an additional booklet which talks about each album, the band, etc... It also has an additional disc which contains a lot of the leftover and oddball tracks from this era. The band during this period released two EPs of studio material. While those discs aren't contained themselves in the box set, the songs that were on them are on the bonus disc. This covers the "Spot the Pigeon" release from 1977, the "Many too Many" release in 1978, the 3x3 release in 1982, as well as two studio tracks that were unique to "side 4" of the Three Sides Live album. So there's a lot of pickup of rogue oddball tracks on this disc; I like that.

The final disc is another DVD, which contains a new interview with Genesis about these particular remasters and this box, as well as a video for "Paperlate", which came from the 3x3 EP.

If you're a Genesis fan, you're probably going to want this, as there's a wealth of extras. Buying the individual discs will get you everything except the last bonus disc & DVD as well as the booklet. If you're a completist, you'll want the box, not the individual releases.

Also, in my CD blog here I list each of the albums individually, despite my getting them in this box set. I did that so I could list remarks about the music from the individual albums themselves, in addition to my comments about the box set itself here.

Well, I'm only on "G", and I'm starting to run out of ways to say "OK, I have this Greatest Hits CD because it's easier than buying all their other albums for the couple of songs I like". But that's the case here. I was pleasantly surprised that it included a song from the post Phil Collins album!

Update Jun 2008: Now that I've gotten all the Genesis albums from 1976 through 1997 through the remaster releases in 2007, I don't have a real need to keep this one. But I do anyway, as it's a great cross section of Genesis tracks from the Phil Collins era. It's also got a unique recording, that being the 1999 re-recording of "The Carpet Crawlers". If you don't have any Genesis at all, this is not a bad starting point.

This is an album that most people wonder why I have. It's the "fake" Genesis (aka the studio album they did after Phil Collins left) with a new singer. I tend to like bands that make albums like this. A big name band that's made an album that no one seems to know about at all. That was this one. It's too bad, as it has some decent material on it. A lot of it is just "Eh", but there are some things worth listening to here. Namely the title track, Congo, & Small Talk. Shipwrecked was the big single, which is also quite good.

That's the thing about this album - it gets totally overlooked merely because it's the album they did without Phil Collins. If I recall, when it came out, there was backlash against it before it was released for that same reason. People didn't want to accept it if it did not have Collins behind the mike. It was FOR THAT REASON that I was there as a Day 1 purchase. I love it when bands keep going - the fact that they took a shot, and kept going when most everyone assumed they'd pack it in was worthy of support.

If you've never tried this album, you should. Now don't get me wrong, it isn't "Genesis", and it isn't the best of the catalog, but it is way better than it's reputation would make you believe it is.

After the success of Invisible Touch, people wondered what Genesis would do as a followup. Well, they'd rest for awhile, since it took several years for the guys to get together again for another album. Released roughly five years after the last album, We Can't Dance was for me the album they should have made after "Genesis". This album seems like a good mix between the commercial and the non commercial Genesis music.

I very much liked "No Son of Mine", "Jesus He Knows Me", & "I Can't Dance". Yeah, I know, they're the singles, but they stick out more to me sitting here writing this than the rest of the tracks do. As I look at the CD next to my keyboard now, I recall really liking this album when it was new, I need to break it out and give it another listen. I actually still have my pre-recorded cassette tape I bought of this, plus my wife has her original CD copy as well, so I guess that qualifies as being an album we both like if we still have our original purchases. :)

As a random note, the logo they used on this album continues to be used today. Aside from the album they did with Roy Wilson in 1997, it's been in use since this album.

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I got this version of the CD in the 1983-1998 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.

This is it. The album that completely divides Genesis fans. Old school Genesis fans (basically Gabriel era fans) tend to absolutely abhor this album. Collins era fans love it. It is by far their most commercially successful album, which was partially due to the songs on it, and also partially due to Phil Collins' own solo success. Right before this, Collins had put out the massively successful "No Jacket Required" album. That album probably brought a lot of fans to Genesis that hadn't been here before. So there was this clash of old school Genesis fans and the new ones. I remember this well, having lived through it. There was an enormous uproar from old school Genesis fans who had been watching their band "deteriorate" into what it became, and basically gave up. For awhile I bought into that (looking back, I don't really know why), and didn't much care for this album.

Thing is, when it was new I liked several of the songs. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight and Land of Confusion were particular favorites. Land of Confusion got a lot of airplay because of its quite strong video, which included the puppets of Spitting Image. The title track was the first single from the album, and really did sound like a Phil Collins solo song of the time. That's where I think most of the argument against the album came from, was that one song.

As time has passed, I've changed my opinion on this. I've grown to like the rest of the album too. It's not my favorite Collins era album, but it's better than I remembered it being as I sat down to check it out after having received the box set.

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I got this version of the CD in the 1983-1998 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.

For my tastes, the most solid Phil Collins era Genesis album. When it was new, I didn't pay much attention to it, as I was just out of high school, and I was in the grip of the hair metal time in the 80's. I did like a lot of the songs then, but I never actually bought the album as such.

Fast forward to now, and as I look back on myself then, I'm fortunate I know as much of the album as I do, given how deep into hard rock I was at the time. This album is quite solid, it isn't until track seven where I start to get a bit antsy. Side one is badass. Mama, That's All, Home by the Sea, Second Home by the Sea are all killer. Illegal Alien was the first song from "Side 2", then "Taking it all too Hard" came after that. There's a ton of really good stuff here.

This was probably the first of the albums in their "mega uber hyper popular" period with Phil Collins (that lasted through the next album and one beyond). Was enormously popular at the time, although as I've said, not really with me personally. :)

Mama has got to be one of their all time favorite tracks. If you listen to the bonus disc interview, Phil Collins talks about the origins of that laugh, was quite a surprising story.

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I got this version of the CD in the 1983-1998 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.

Abacab is probably the first Genesis album I really got. I knew they existed with Gabriel & Hackett in earlier years, but they didn't interest me at the time. The more "accessible" Genesis is what I really knew, and had to "learn backwards". This was my starting point, really. The title track, "No Reply at All", and "Man on the Corner" are the strong tracks for me, but some of the other tracks here that hark back to the more complex Genesis are worthy of attention too (Me and Sarah Jane would be an example of that).

I got this version of the CD in the 1976-1982 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I used to have this CD on it's own before I got the box set, I ditched that version of Abacab when I got the box, but here's what I originally had written for that version of the album:

Original Version Notes: Genesis is one of those bands I've always liked, but for some reason never really bought a lot of their albums on CD. Before CD's I used to have a lot of their stuff on tape, but I never upgraded them to CD for some reason. This is one I did - happen to like a lot of songs on it. The title track is a good one for me, as is No Reply at all and Man on the Corner.

Duke was a really great album, one that I owned on a pre-recorded cassette back in the day. This is an album I liked a lot. It was also the beginning of the time when it was hard to tell a Phil Collins solo song and a Collins penned Genesis song.

If you know the history, it was during this time that Collins' first marriage was breaking up, and when he tried to save it, the band waited on him. When he returned, he wrote the bulk of his first solo album there, along with two songs which ended up on Duke, "Misunderstanding", and "Please Don't Ask".

Misunderstanding is one of my favorite Genesis tracks, as is "Turn it on Again", which speaks to the fact that I seem to enjoy Collins driven Genesis better than the other stuff.

Anyway, it's one of my more favorite Genesis albums, which is odd as the "old sound" is still very much here, too.

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I got this version of the CD in the 1976-1982 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.

"And Then There Were Three" was a Genesis album that I never owned in any format before the 2007 box set came out, but I did know some of the material. Most of it not by title though - it was one of those "Oh yeah, I've heard that" albums when I put it on. I do have a huge connection to this though.

Follow You Follow Me. That was Genesis' first US hit song up until this point, and it was the "first dance" song at my wedding. My wife chose that. I was indifferent - I knew the song, but if she wanted it, I had no replacement ready, so we went with it, prompting a few "You can't dance to that!" remarks from our attendees. :)

Anyway, it's a good album, and one that shows the genesis (har-har) of the latter sound, something that is bulked up over the next two releases (Duke, Abacab). On the whole, not one of my favorite albums, but it's not exactly awful, either. :)

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I got this version of the CD in the 1976-1982 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.

Wind & Wuthering is another Genesis album I knew next to nothing about when I got it in the box set. On first look, I recognized nothing of the track listing. As I write this after having the box for a couple of months, this is my least listened to album. As I have next to no listening of this album from which to write even the slimmest of reviews, I'm going to take a pass. Once I revisit it and can something better, I will update this review.

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I got this version of the CD in the 1976-1982 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.

A Trick of the Tail is a Genesis album that I never bought on any format before getting it as part of the 2007 box set it was in. I looked at the track listing, and didn't recognize anything from this album. However, after listening to it, you get an odd mix. As someone who was most fond of the mid/late 80's style of Genesis song, this was different for me. However, a few tracks stood out. I loved Squonk. Turned out I knew it, just not by title. Los Endos was pretty cool too. I can't say this would be the first one I reach for when I go for Genesis, but there was more here than I thought there would be.

This was the first album the band made without Peter Gabriel, although to be honest, I know little of Gabriel's Genesis output, so that marker is lost on me. :)

The 2007 remaster series has two discs. The second has a DVD Audio 5.1 mix of the album, plus new interviews, videos, live footage, etc. I got this version of the CD in the 1976-1982 Genesis Box Set. You can order that here, but the cover art here links to the individual 2007 remaster version of this album, as it's cheaper to buy them individually, but you don't get the bonus discs in the box set.