Genesis – We Can’t Dance
“Leaving us all behind, lost in a changing world”
All right moving on to Genesis’ fourteenth studio album which was the last one with Phil Collins and my 17th album review post. I’m gonna try to keep this one under 3000 words. That being said I never imagined I could write almost 3000 about Invisible Touch.
The band had wrapped up their 112 date Invisible Touch tour in July of 1987 having released only 4 studio albums in the decade vs one in the 60’s and eight in the 70’s. Invisible Touch was an absolute monster success of an album, earning the band their first number one album and singles in many places around the globe. Then they kind of disappeared as a group with the intention for them all to focus on their respective side-projects. Phil did some acting and also released his fourth solo album …But Seriously which was another huge success and was followed by a massive world tour from Feb through the beginning of October 1990 with almost no breaks. Mike worked on two Mechanics albums. Tony worked on some solo projects and tried to buy a smile with all his oodles of cash, but it didn’t take. So, in March of 1991 they reconvened after the longest break of the career (3 and a half years) and began working on what would become We Can’t Dance, Phil’s last studio album with the band. Working again from The Farm and jamming up ideas from scratch, they apparently worked up 15 songs over several months and at one point considered releasing a double album. Tony has mentioned that they never thought Collins would want to return to Genesis after Invisible Touch due to his hugely successful solo career, but apparently Collins enjoyed the improv nature of how the band had been working for many years, which was very different from how he worked outside of the band.
This time they decided to work with Nick Davis who had produced records with both Rutherford and Banks in the interim. Hugh Padgham who had engineered and co-produced 3 Genesis albums and 4 Collins albums was officially part of their past. Kudos to Hugh, his production on all the albums was fantastic despite your thoughts on them. Twelve tracks were selected for the album that would end up being the longest single album of material they ever produced at 71 minutes, just about the maximum time a CD could contain. Like Invisible Touch the lyrics were intended to be divided up by song between the three members but Collins ended up providing more than the others. The album has a much more serious tone with the band focusing on a variety of social issues (hit and run driver, the Gulf War, domestic abuse, 19th century Irish railway workers and the death of Eric Clapton’s son). The rest of the album was generally lighter in nature. The album was released October 28 1991 in the US and November 11 in the UK and was again a massive success reaching top 10 in most countries and #1 in many. This time the album produced six singles, the most ever for a Genesis album, and the album made 150 Billion dollars…I’m kidding I have no idea how much it made but you can bet it was enough to buy at least a couple more drum machines each.
I am going to try to be objective and write my thoughts on this album while re-listening – to be fair I never liked this album very much and as a result haven’t listened to it much either. It is also only 1 of 2 Genesis albums I do not own on Vinyl – the other being Calling All Stations. I’ll decide at the end if that should change. NOW…here is the Choose Your Own Adventure part of my Genesis reviews. If you love the album you might want to stop here. Music is meant to be something that elevates your life. If you love this one, that’s awesome and I have nothing but respect for your praise of it. It’s not my place to judge anyone for what they like or don’t like. If you don’t love this album, however, or are a fan of subjective humour and pointed opinion, continue. This might be the droid you are looking for.
The final Collins album starts out pretty strong actually with the song No Son Of Mine, which begins with a similarly eerie feeling to Mama and keyboards that remind me of In The Air Tonight. Immediately the sound is much more organic sounding than Invisible Touch which has an almost relentless synthetic sound. I used to not like this song, but I must say on critical evaluation, in hindsight it is pretty solid, and has Collins delivering one of the most impassioned vocals of his Genesis career. Mike provides some guitar at various levels in the mix and a processed sound that resembles an elephant in distress. It’s a pretty serious lyric, especially for Genesis who, despite having written some of the best lyrics ever, have really never ventured too far into the realm of social issues, apart from maybe Giant Hogweeds invading the UK and Cat/Mouse warfare. It was a massive hit single. A few months ago if asked about this song I probably would have said it is a boring last grasp at something serious, but I would have been way off the mark. I stand corrected and accept my punishment which comes in the form of the next song.
And what new forms of torture have the band in store for me? Well that would be Jesus He Knows Me. OK I’ll give it this, it is an upbeat catchy keyboard based song and I can almost enjoy it if I’m on a healthy dose of Oxy. I absolutely hate the bridge though. Can anyone tell me why both Peter Gabriel and Genesis decided to write songs about reality TV? Neither song is very good in my opinion. I’d go with The Barry Williams Show if I had to choose, which I don’t really want to. Actually, I’d pick neither if I had to. This song was another huge hit and honestly it is probably a much better song than I’m think it is, but with this one I’m carrying almost 30 years of contempt. At least it isn’t one of their long songs…so…you know…that’s one good thing about it.
Speaking of which next up is a long song. Hang on to your hats for Driving The Last Spike! It initially sounds like they are trying to rewrite No Son Of Mine. It is all wispy and seems a bit desperate to evoke a mood of mournfulness, but overall I find the song and the keys in particular uninspired for the first half of the song. I mean in general it is nice and a lot of people cite it as a great Genesis long track. I think at best it could be described as a long Genesis track. It doesn’t really sound like anyone wants to put much effort into doing anything extra though I know the serious nature of the lyrics is supposed to work with the music. I can’t think of a single Genesis epic length song that sounds as boring and in particular devoid of any Banks inspired playing. The second half of the song reminds me of In Your Eyes but without the sentiment. It is sung with earnest passion, but I have almost no emotional reaction to the actual message. I think Phil was being prophetic when he said “They’ll never see the likes of us again”. Longest 10 minutes of their entire career. The song even comes to an end as if everyone just wants it to stop. What a disappointment I find this song to be. Sorry all you lovers of songs about railroad construction related death.
Next is I Can’t Dance from which the album got its title and was top 10 single in about 500 countries. I submit that this song is single handily responsible for anyone being able to make a legitimate argument regarding the greatness of what Genesis were. It is one of Phil’s favourite Genesis songs – which in addition to other band members professed love of other gutter balls leads me to believe they have no idea what a great Genesis song sounds like. Yeah…OK…next …I’ve already said too much – Penalty to Michael Rutherford…5 minutes for unGenesislike conduct.
Next up is the second last song on the album Never A Time – What…What? There are 7 more after this? They spoil us with riches methinks. All right this song immediately sounds like it is an extension of It’s Gonna Get Better but way less interesting. The beauty of this chord progression as it exists in It’s Gonna Get Better is that it only happens once and makes a great song even better. Here it sounds lethargic and a bit flaccid. The best I can say is that it is a nice song in a highly innocuous way and could, without blinking, be on a Collins solo album and no one would know the difference…other than fans of Genesis albums that don’t contain this song. At this point I wish anyone sounded like they wanted to make this record. After a 5 year break I’m amazed at how painfully average most of it sounds.
Dreaming While We Sleep starts with a softy Caribbean drum machine. It makes me pine for Man On The Corner. Is this even Tony Banks on Keyboards? I think I need proof. Tony at his worst moments to date was at least interesting. What he adds is the equivalent of a mailed in performance at best. Drums are loud for a bit which is nice as it kind of wakes you up. Rutherford adds some…um…guitar notes in the middle. I wish they hadn’t woken me up for this one and it kind of sounds like they were sleeping through it as well. I think maybe I need to listen to this one again cause I might be missing something….OK I’m back… you know what…I think I’m being too hard on this song. In the context of the intention of the lyric conveyed it’s actually not too bad and it isn’t as boring as I noted, though I must say it was fun writing that. Also, on reassessment, perhaps Tony’s keys are more about serving the song than being interesting and thus I should perhaps praise the restraint as opposed to blaming it for a lack of effort. Sorry for the confusion – All I can say is that it seems as if I both like and dislike this one.
OK on to the second half starting with Tell Me Why. Yes indeed that’s a valid question indeed.. Tony’s playing is inspired on this one…actually no it isn’t. It is pretty fucking boring and annoying for the most part, though I have heard him say he was actually trying to be more restrained in his approach on this album, though unlike Dreaming While You Sleep, I’m not convinced that is a good choice in this case. Mike can be heard playing guitar on this one, though I find what he is playing to be fairly average at best. Luckily much of it is mixed at a level that can go unnoticed if you blur your eyes. The song is upbeat though so…yeah there is that. One point for an upbeat tempo. They just need a different song and it would be perfect. I think this was a single. I’ve never heard it on the radio once which is just fine. I think it was top 10 in Uzbekistan and the Faroe Islands. The song fades out at 5 minutes – they should have faded it out around a minute 20 cause nothing else different happens after that……I wonder if my kids are OK…I haven’t heard them in a while…wait sorry I’m losing focus…back to the review.
Living Forever is another song a lot of people cite as a bright point on this album. It is OK – I mean it doesn’t sound insipid which is pretty good for this album. I think it is supposed to be a funny song. Again Mike…he really should be able to come up with stuff more interesting than this at this point. I guess he was musically moving in a different direction with Mike and the Mechanics and this is the result. He wasn’t ever an incredible lead player, but he did hit a pretty high point in the early 80s. This is not him at his most creative. He is the guitar player, however, so…he is the one playing guitar, I guess. Tony sounds like his Xanax wore off long enough around the 3 minute mark to lay down a sleepy solo over a moderately interesting beat that lasts for the remaining 2 and a half minutes until it sounds as if everyone said “fuck it that’s enough” and the song just ends in blaze of apathy.
Next is Hold On My Heart which was the third big hit single from this album. Yikes I really can’t – it’s too much of not enough. OK take a breath…It is a nice love song wrapped in a nice 90s blanket of nice, with a side of cheese. My wife calls this kind of stuff bedwetter music. I can’t really argue. I love most Genesis love songs, unlike many fans, but even I have my limits. At least it isn’t very long. Another song that really sounds like it should be on Collins solo album. I really don’t think this song has aged well at all. I think I was listening to Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque around this time so was in a slightly different headspace and admittedly I was probably not the target market. Everything bad about the 80s but failed to realize it was the 90s might be right here in this song
OK three more songs…my god how long is this album? Why couldn’t Selling England or Foxtrot be this long? What did we do to deserve this? It’s because of Illegal Alien right? This is God’s way of punishing us for making it a hit. Way Of The World…I don’t even remember hearing this song before. Maybe I’ve never survived this long listening to the album. I’ll give them this – at least one song sounds like there is a modicum of interest by the band. I mean they aren’t attacking it with the ferocity of Dance On A Volcano…hell I’m not even sure it is the same guys in the band…but it doesn’t sound like they all wish they were in another band on this one either. What a strange time to find a piece of Pyrite in a coal mine. Hurray, something that doesn’t suck. I’m not going to re-listen to it because I might end up deciding it does.
Will this luck extend to Since I Lost You?…Deep breath…and exhale…Nope maybe I should have just kept on holding my breath. It would have ended faster. Its heart is in the right place and I know it is about Clapton’s son and Collins was friends and played on some of his records, but as a song it doesn’t really do much for me. Maybe I’m dead inside at this point – these types of songs usually have some resonance with me but not this one. I feel a little bit bad about it but not enough to change my mind. It kind of sounds like a Christmas death song.
Finally, we come to Fading Lights, the one glimmer of hope in a sea of dying fish. It initially kind of reminds me of the drums from Man On The Corner with In The Air Tonight keyboards. It is to date the last epic song the trio wrote and credit where credit is due, it is a pretty nice piece of music. Where most of the other songs on the album sound like no one is particularly interested or inspired, here they all show up as if the preceding hour hadn’t happened. Tony has some interesting solos – they aren’t iconic, but at least it shows some effort was made. There is some heart to it that you can feel is different from most of the rest of the album. It isn’t a perfect song, but it is the closest they come to something approaching old glory and at least they prophetically signed off the Collins years on a high note.
Two other songs were written for the album, both of which ended up on B-Sides of singles. On The Shoreline was on the I Can’t Dance single and Hearts On Fire on Jesus He Knows Me. Of the two On The Shoreline is the better song and could have replaced a number of songs on the actual record. Hearts On Fire on the other hand…I guess it is OK (and by OK I mean not so OK) as a b-side, but that isn’t really fair to all the other b-sides that exist.
So overall this album kind of makes me want to weep. I went into this hoping to re-evaluate it and I am left with the thought that with the exception of Fading Lights, No Son Of Mine, Way Of The World and possibly Dreaming While You Sleep (plus a few other random moments), every song on it might be the worst ones they ever wrote. No one sounds inspired in the slightest on much of the album. Everything comes across as if the band were forced to write it under duress and threat of death or dismemberment (I’m going to catch some shit for this one). These guys are all phenomenal musicians and have produced some of the most interesting music I’ve ever heard. Not much of that is on display anywhere on this album. What a disappointing way to end this stage of the band’s career. I really really tried to be objective but alas it wouldn’t let me in places. Apologies to fans of the album. This is all just my take on it. To be fair I have good things to say about every album up to this one. I mean some people think the band should have broken up after Ant Phillips left. They had an amazing run as a trio…they’ve earned a gimme. Feel free to call me out on this one…I might have been too hard on it, but I think the best I can give it is a near pass overall. I do need to keep in mind that they were actually striving for a simpler approach to song writing. As a music fan I’m ok with that but in this case I have a feeling that it may in fact be the problem I have with the album as a whole. I was in a different frame of mind musically when this came out. Perhaps if I give it some more attention, I’ll change my mind.
(Final word count 3217 – as for the vinyl…If I find a copy I’ll probably pick it up)
Recommended Listening – No Son Of Mine, Dreaming While You Sleep (maybe), Way Of The World, Fading Lights
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