Genesis - Abacab (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as an LP, later replaced by this 2007 'Digital Remaster and Stereo Mix' CD

It's a bantamweight battle between Phil Collins' unabashed pop writing versus the group's prog-rock earlier days versus the up-and-coming New Wave sound. The bout ends in a draw, but I somewhat enjoy all styles on the album, particularly when they somehow all merge in the title cut. But good tracks are few and far between. Overall, I prefer Invisible Touch or, even better, Duke.

After abacabbing, the band focused on radio-ready, chart-topping releases and made truckloads of money.

Press of the time:

• Trouser Press: "smothering of ideas by leaving no holes uncluttered"
• Smash Hits (6½ out of 10): "Not exactly an essential purchase but undoubtedly worth a listen"
• Rolling Stone (★★★): "Though you can't actually dance to Abacab, it does prove there's life left in the band yet."
• Stereo Review: "a lifeless, styleless mess of repetition and garbage"
• Musician: "Genesis sounds like a group for the first time."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #7
• Billboard Rock: #1
• CashBox: #8
• Rolling Stone: #7

Tracks:

1. Abacab (#4 rock, #26 pop) - catchy riff and chorus, then Tony Banks gets to stretch out a little in the prog solo section. That prog solo section is probably why the single didn't chart higher, but I like it anyway.
2. No Reply At All (#2 rock, #29 pop) - Phil Collins snuck one of his pop solo tunes on a Genesis album and boy-oh-boy did that upset some Genesis fans. Not this guy; I enjoy the thing. Not surprisingly the producer of Face Value, Hugh Padgham, is credited as engineer on this album. This cut was probably left off the FV album because of its similarity to I Missed Again.
3. Me And Sarah Jane - Starts off sounding like something from Duke but ends up being a bunch of song fragments that never really go anywhere. Pleasant enough, but nothing I'd seek out.
4. Keep It Dark - a one-riff-pony track about an alien abduction. Pass.
5. Dodo/Lurker - I like the bombastic Dodo section that kicks things off, but I really dig the popish synth hook of the mostly instrumental Lurker part. After the title track and No Reply, the third best cut on the album.
6. Who Dunnit? - This repetitive song is annoying to begin with, but for some reason Phil affects a Cockney accent. Another pass.
7. Man On The Corner (#14 rock, #40 pop) - Phil sneaks in another solo tune. I much preferred when he later recycled the drum machine programming for Take Me Home. A welcome change-of-pace, though.
8. Like It Or Not - Not. (Apologies, but with that song title, they're handing me some low-hanging fruit, no?) Taking the heavy downbeat groove from Misunderstanding, this has its moments but, like track 3, just meanders around a few motifs.
9. Another Record - I can't tell if this filler tune is a clever way to end the album or an unintentional joke. Either way, it's still filler (with lots of drums).

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'm pretty sure my Genesis discovery went something like this: my buddy Jim gave me his copy of Duke in the early summer of 1982 and I played the heck out of it. Then I heard Paperlate on the radio so I went out and bought Three Sides Live. A few months later, I bought Abacab through one of those Columbia House scams (most people like to brag they got the better of Columbia House - myself included - but don't fool yourself, kids; Columbia House made a ton of money off all of us for decades until streaming finished them off.) I don't care much for That's All, so I never picked up the 1983 self-titled joint, but Invisible Touch soundtracked my summer of 1986. And then, for some reason now unknown, I was done with Genesis.

Remember taking those standardized aptitude tests in high school? The ones where the proctor said "there's no penalty for wrong answers, so just guess on the ones you don't know"? When we got near the end of the prescribed testing time, I would usually start singing this album's title tune in my head while filling in my answer sheet A-B-A-C-A-B-A-B-A-C-A-B and so on. If I knew then what I know now about standardized test construction and basic probability, I would have been better off just picking one letter and just sticking with that: B-B-B-B-B-B. However, I think I'm finally, gratefully done with multiple choice tests, so I don't need to clutter my mind with such things anymore. The real reason for the Abacab moniker is briefly explained here.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Turn It On Again: The Hits - The Tour Edition (2007)
Invisible Touch (1986)
Duke (1980)

Genesis - Invisible Touch (1986)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD

A hugely popular album in which 5 of its 8 tracks were top 5 pop hits, including the group's only US #1 hit, the title track. I played the heck outta my cassette in '86, so when I recently saw this CD in a used bin, I thought I'd pick it up to remind myself of the other three tracks. Plus, it's a great road trip album and I've been on the road a bit more than usual of late.

Patrick Bateman calls the album the group's "undisputed masterpiece." (NSFW)

On a side note, that's one of the worst album cover designs ever put out by Assorted iMaGes. And it got worse...

Billboard, June 6, 1987
click to enlarge

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone: "every tune is carefully pruned so that each flourish delivers not an instrumental epiphany but a solid hook."
• Robert Christgau (C+): "in the end I couldn't tolerate the generalization density"
• Smash Hits (5 out of 10): "sounds like a collection of theme tunes from boring American TV programmes."
• Stereo Review: "a better title would have been 'Invisible Content.'"
• Los Angeles Times: "Maybe the record was made to provide material for the next season of 'Miami Vice.'"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #3
• Billboard Pop CD: #1
• CashBox: #2
• CashBox CD: #1
• Rolling Stone: #1

Tracks:

Song	Hot 100	AC	Rock
Invisible Touch	1	3	1
Throwing It All Away	4	1	1
Land of Confusion	4		11
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight	3	8	9
In Too Deep	3	1	34

While the singles are more like Phil Collins' solo stuff (particularly In Too Deep), there are a few times when the group's prog-rock beginnings* are allowed to peep through on songs like Domino. Also, I had forgotten than Tonight, Tonight, Tonight was actually a 9 minute cut with an extended middle section edited out in the single version. I also forgot how much I liked the album closer, an Miami Vice soundtrackish instrumental titled The Brazilian.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: see this previous post. I suppose I found much refuge in the music of 1986 because my job was so terrible. Still, I wouldn't trade that summer for anything.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Turn It On Again: The Hits - The Tour Edition (2007)
Duke (1980)

*I want credit for not using the phrase "the group's prog-rock genesis"

Genesis - Turn It On Again: The Hits - The Tour Edition (2007)

GREATEST HITS FORTNIGHT (FEBRUARY 6-19, 2012)

An expanded two-disc edition of the group's 1999 greatest hits package, subtitled The Tour Edition, was released to promote the Turn It On Again reunion tour. My interest in Genesis extends only from 1980-1986, not including their music from 1983's self-titled album. In other words, I'm a casual fan at best and, with the exception of the title track from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (not included here), I'm not really interested in the Peter Gabriel years. Admittedly, a two-disc set may have been overkill for me.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #132

Tracks, disc 1: 17 songs.
Songs I like: Turn It On Again, Invisible Touch, Tonight Tonight Tonight, In Too Deep, Throwing It All Away, Abacab, and No Reply At All
I'm indifferent: No Son Of Mine, I Can't Dance, Hold On My Heart, Jesus He Knows Me, Land Of Confusion, and Illegal Alien (which is offensive on so many levels).
I dislike: Mama and That's All ("Dislike" isn't the right term for That's All. I can't stand that song. It would easily make my list of the worst songs of the '80s, possibly topping that list, although any Cyndi Lauper song might give it a run for that spot. I'd rather listen to my Aqua album again.)
Don't remember hearing before today: Tell Me Why and The Carpet Crawlers.

Tracks, disc 2: 17 songs.
Songs I like: Paperlate and Duchess
I'm indifferent: Keep It Dark, Misunderstanding, and Follow You Follow Me
I dislike: Man On The Corner
Don't remember hearing before today: tracks 7-17

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Purchased for a long trip across the state in 2008, before I had the luxury of satellite radio. I'm sure I skipped many of the songs on that trip, making this the first time both CDs have been listened to in their entirety.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Duke (1980)

Genesis - Duke (1980)

Note: this release was originally gifted to me as a LP, later replaced by a CD.

Guest review by Patrick Bateman

I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that I didn't really understand any of their work, though on their last album of the 1970s, the concept-laden And Then There Were three (a reference to band member Peter Gabriel, who left the group to start a lame solo career), I did enjoy the lovely Follow You, Follow Me. Otherwise all the albums before Duke seemed too artsy, too intellectual. It was Duke, where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent, and the music got more modern, the drum machine became more prevalent and the lyrics started getting less mystical and more specific (maybe because of Peter Gabriel's departure), and complex, ambiguous studies of loss became, instead, smashing first-rate pop songs that I gratefully embraced. The songs themselves seemed arranged more around Collins' drumming than Mike Rutherford's bass lines or Tony Banks' keyboard riffs. A classic example of this is Misunderstanding, which not only was the group's first big hit of the eighties but also seemed to set the tone for the rest of their albums as the decade progressed. The other standout on Duke is Turn It On Again, which is about the negative effects of television. On the other hand, Heathaze is a song I just don't understand, while Please Don't Ask is a touching love song written to a separated wife who regains custody of the couple's child. Has the negative aspect of divorce ever been rendered in more intimate terms by a rock 'n' roll group? I don't think so. Duke Travels and Dukes End might mean something but since the lyrics aren't printed it's hard to tell what Collins is singing about, though there is complex, gorgeous piano work by Tony Banks on the latter track. The only bummer about Duke is Alone Tonight, which is way too reminiscent of Tonight Tonight Tonight from the group's later masterpiece Invisible Touch and the only example, really, of where Collins has plagiarized himself.

(American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, p. 133)

This is another one of my "Summer CDs": even though this came out in 1980, I didn't hear it until summer 1982 when my friend Jim gave me his copy of this LP, thinking I might like it. He did that sort of thing all the time. This is my favorite Genesis album, maybe because it bridged the gap from prog rock to pop rock. There's a little of each here; I've heard this called "modernist art rock," but that may be a bit pretentious. After this introduction, I bought 1982's Three Sides Live and stuck with Genesis for a while, but lost interest after 1986's Invisible Touch. While I have a greatest-hits collection by the group, this is the only full album in my CD collection. I get it out once a summer and give it a listen for nostalgia's sake.

Press of the time:

• Smash Hits (6 out of 10): "tediously overblown opera"
• CashBox: "this venerable progressive rock band has delivered a winner."
• Rolling Stone: "Genesis aren't ready for an exodus yet"
• Stereo Review: "Better than I expected"
• Trouser Press: "the band's vaunted dramatic sense seems totally played out"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #11
• CashBox: #14
• Rolling Stone: #8

Tracks: I'm a fan of the first and last songs, which were originally meant to comprise the beginning and end of a prog-rock suite. My favorite track is Turn It On Again, which keeps the listener off balance with its verse in 13 (6+7) then relaxing into 4 before returning to 13. I also like Cul-de-Sac, the most prog rock track on the disc. I know that Misunderstanding is the hit from the album, but I'm not wild about it; I can take it or leave it. Today I had to take it. My least favorite track is Alone Tonight, which is clear album filler. I hate to disagree with Patrick (above), but the liner notes indicate that Alone Tonight was written by Rutherford. That Patrick dude is crazy like that (I don't think he knows what he's talking about half the time). I'm not wild about Collins' ballad, Please Don't Ask, but it definitely pointed the direction he would take over the course of his career.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: My freshman year in college, I roomed next door to Tom, a huge Phil Collins fan. He and I got along splendidly, but at the end of that school year, he decided not to return to that university the next fall. He owned all of the albums of both Phil Collins and Genesis, except Duke. When I saw him for the last time that May (in a scene so touching it could be in a Lifetime made-for-tv movie), I gave him my Duke LP to complete his collection. I'm a re-gifter and I don't care who knows it.