Genesis - Calling All Stations (Yikes!)

Ok, so let's look at another album. Being a bit of a fan of early Genesis, and a fan of a bit of later Genesis, I bought this dirt cheap despite all the negative comments made about it. I can afford 99 pence.

Genesis used to be a great prog-rock band. Then when Peter Gabriel left they tried to be a more poppy proggy band, and sometimes succeeded. Finally they stuck to pop, Phil Collins style, and some of that was rather fun. Then they disappeared, leaving Phil Collins to annoy the hell out of everyone and Mike to do his Mechanics all over Radio Two. 1991 saw a return with an album (We Can't Dance) with loads of yawn-worthy material, and two poppy hits. They really shouldn't have bothered, and Phil Collins left after a while. That was the end of that.

Six years later, and for some reason, Rutherford and Banks still wanted to be Genesis, so they got some generic singer called Ray Wilson to warble over some rather bland soft rock and released this worthless lump of shite.

OK, so that is a bit harsh, so let us look at what we have here. First, what an awful cover. So Invisible Touch is even more ghastly, but this scores nil points for effort.

As for the music, it starts off sounding like a bad version of post-waters Pink Floyd. Calling All Stations is a rather mundane song which is made worse by a repetitive drum sound banging on all through the track which really annoys me. At the end Ray tries to inject a bit of oomph into his singing but the track fades out as he starts to let rip. Perhaps he was getting a bit too interesting.

A rather bad start, but underneath all my niggles with this track there is a sign of some hope. If they used a more interesting sound, got rid of the nasty robotic drum, let Ray go for it, found a decent tune and ended it properly then I might have liked it a bit. But wait, things do look better. Congo with its ethnic flavour and quite a catchy chorus almost deserves another chance, but hey, I'm not that generous, and it does have another bloody fade out. Lazy sods. Shipwrecked is nice, almost moving, almost worth checking out. Almost. Then we get the first long track. I guess they were trying to attract the older prog-rock loving Genesis fan with length and keep the more modern pop loving fan happy with safe sounds. Alien Afternoon starts off rather dull, I am reaching for that cup of cocoa before bedtime, but they bung on a pleasant if rather muddy instrumental second half which kind of redeems the track, almost making me not notice that fade out. Lazy sods. Well, that's three tracks in a row with a tiny bit of promise. They then let themselves down with two slow plodding dull songs. I'm now very bored. And to be fair, I've listened to this three times now. Gah! I need slapping in the face with a wet herring.

So far so unGenesis. Nothing so far sounds anything like anything Genesis have released before. I know Invisible Touch sounds nothing like Foxtrot, but at least there was a progression through the albums inbetween. This could be any generic rock band. As such The Dividing Line is a pleasant surprise. Lots of real drumwork, the synths sound like Tony Bank's synths and there is an overall Genesissy sound. There is even a proper ending! Yey! Shame it isn't that exciting. Trouble is they then go back to the bland and dull generic soft rock pap for the next three songs, although Ray tries to give it some welly in There Must Be Some Other Way so I guess it deserves better than the great skip button of doom. Finally we get to One Man's Fool, another lengthy track which goes nowhere and ends the album with another fade out! They know how to irritate me.

It all seems so half-hearted. I'd rather they bring back Phil and those pop songs! At least I can get drunk and wobble my bits to them.

Next time I shall spend my 99 pence on another Girls Aloud single. At least they have fun.