DUKE

My First Review and not a lot more to be said about this one. Not my favourite Genesis recording by some considerable margin as it marked the band's continued decline into pop rock almost AOR realms. Not a bad album but not in the same league as Trick of the Tail.

However, I now have the spiffy remastered SACD 5.1 DTS etc. etc versions which add surround sound mixes and bonus visual (i.e DVD) content. Duke features approximately 30 minutes of high quality live footage from 1980 and this alone is worth the (rather high) asking price. We kick off with a couple of tracks from Duke which seem rather more powerful than the Studio versions even allowing for the rather primitive (though no less enjoyable for that) Linn drum effects- very 1980!! The highlight though has to be "In the cage", "Los Endos" and "Dance on a Volcano" great performances from all the members plus the epic drum "duel" between Chester Thompson and Phil Collins! Oh and if you like bass pedals it's a wet dream!!! The rest of the bonus material includes a band interview with the members talking about the making of Duke plus some rather dated video promos and stills of the 1980 tour programme. Great Package particularly if you can stretch to the Box set. 3 Stars for the Studio Album, 5 for the re-mastered package.