CALLING ALL STATIONS

First of all, I would like to note that I highly disagree with the opinion that many people seem to have about this record of being so terrible. I think it was a step back from the good moments the last records with Phil Collins provided, but this record is better than Abacab or Genesis at any time of the day.

One proof of this statement is the strong drum work present here, which has nothing to envy to Phil Collin's in his good days (before he decided to rely his work on electronic percussion).

Another proof is that Tony Banks still seems to be capable of providing good atmospheres on the songs, not the best ones he has provided but not also the worst whatsoever.

However, I agree with the fact that this album has problems.

The first one is the new vocalist. First of all, I would like to make clear that I think that Ray Wilson is an excellent vocalist. Really. But his vocal style doesn't seem to fit with Genesis, specially considering that this band had gone through more than twenty years of career with two vocalist with similar vocal tones, and then, when they change again, they bring someone with a completely different style, pretty good and not suitable in this case.

And, in general terms, this album doesn't seem to add anything special to what we had listened previously, either from this band, or any other similar one. The style is also a bit outdated and there are some weak and unoriginal songs, although others are quite remarkable.

Then again, I would consider this record as an average, and sometimes a bit mediocre record from Genesis, but certainly a better one than their most unfortunate efforts.