Customer Reviews
A collection of hits, that I am a bit tired of...
I prefer these versions to the original ones. This cd contains the "hits" from the band, under Phil Collins era, I have to say that I'm a bit tired of hearing these songs, but also, most of these live versions are "refreshing" to hear in a different version. The sound is pretty good for a live release. That's All folks !.
SLOPPY, BUT GOOD++
And what can you possibly say to justify Phil Collins' place on the pop-charts? He's an amazing vocalist, unique and emotive; the songs on this CD are just as dark as anything Genesis has written, with a bit of up-beat pop thrown in between; the basic difference between Phil Collins' solo career and the music of Genesis is that Phil Collins has mostly been a nice-guy-pop-act and Genesis has tended toward more brooding dark-room songs. I don't know what it is with me and Phil Collins/Genesis; their syruppy-synth-soundscapes just kinda stick to my heart like sap, I guess. Even songs like "Invisible touch" and "Jesus He KNows Me" are at least a tad bit cynicle ("Jesus He Knows Me" has a social message, so it's obviously more darker, at least in the lyrical range; it's not slow, so people tend to think it's a "positive" song). So given that information, this CD is basically a collection of top-hits by the band kinda re-imagined. Even the songs that this concert is supposed to be part of a tour for (We Can't Dance) sound a little different than the album versions and that's what makes this album worthy of fitting into a CD collection. The opener sounds kinda out of breath altogether, not just vocally; which is odd, b/c I think they opened the actual concert with that song ("Land of Confusion"), but either the wheeziness (spelling??) gets taken care of or it's just less noticeable as the CD progresses into other songs. . . I don't know; perhaps Collins sounds breathless as a way of connecting with his fellow middle-aged audience-members (they say Genesis was trying to connect with a baby-boomer market when they did INVISIBLE TOUCH in 1986). I'm no middle-aged man/boy/??, but my father (who was in his 20s at the time) was said by my mother (also in her 20s at the time) to have LOVED Genesis and I guess he listened to them quite often. I was describing the synth opener of a 1972 song called "Watcher of The Skies" (back when Peter Gabriel was lead singer, for those of you that don't know too much about Genesis) to my mother (I had bought the CD Foxtrot out of curiousity) and she said she thought she knew what I was talking about. And earlier in my life (not long before, a couple yrs tops - I'm 22 now) I bought SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND and was almost SURE I recognized one of the synth-lines or whatever they're/it's called in "The Battle of Epping Forrest". . . so based on those two facts, I'm pretty sure my father (who abandoned me and my family when I was 7) loved Genesis. And my mother couldn't stop listening to INVISIBLE TOUCH, their only "really good" album according to her. So I think that's probably why the syruppy-sweetness of this music and most of all else by this band sticks to my heart like sap, so to speak. So anyway, I doubt I changed anyone's totally biased opinion about this album or the band, but I hope I made myself clear as to why I am the way I am, in case anyone who knows me reads this!.
Better than being there
And while I certainly was completely blown away by that concert, this record delivers even more of what a Genesis concert should be like. I saw Genesis on the "We Can't Dance" Tour in Hannover, Germany.
Yes, I admit that I'm no fan of their earlier stuff. Matter of taste, surely. Also, it was just before my time. Anyhow, what I liked most about "The Way We Walk Vol. 1 - The Shorts" was the absence of all those older, overly lengthy, artistic songs that don't really mean anything to me. Precisely what other reviewers here lamented -- that everything on this record comes from just three albums, namely "Genesis", "Invisible Touch", and "We Can't Dance" -- makes it so great for me; for as far as I'm concerned, Genesis before those is rather uninspiring.
The performances are just as great as could righteously be expected. I think that the energy from the (quite audible) audience really adds nicely to the band's, especially of course in the Phil Collins trademark back-and-forth singing contest with the audience at the beginning of "Throwing It All Away", but also quite notably at the beginning of "I Can't Dance" (watch out for the audience's reaction to the "boing" sound!). Subtly altered lyrics, mostly a little naughtier than the originals, add to the personal feeling -- it feels like being there. And that "I Can't Dance" was recorded before a German audience, as becomes clear from the shouts of "Zugabe! Zugabe!" (encore) at the end, just means the last bit of delight for me. Hey, I might have been there after all!
If you insist that something negative must be said about this record, I'll admit that I didn't care for the long-winded endings of "No Son of Mine", and especially "I Can't Dance". I keep thinking, "come on, man, that's enough", but on and on he goes. But that's a really minor nuisance. No reason to cut down the five star rating.
If you're from the same generation as I am -- us who grew up with the sinister "Ha ha! Ha! *rowr*" from "Mama", the Spitting Image puppets from "Land of Confusion", and the Levis spots that got so brilliantly defaced in "I Can't Dance" -- this is The Essential Genesis Record. If not, kindly disregard this review.
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