THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

You get a taste of all eras here, although the choices of tracks are rather disappointing. In many cases they chose the worst songs off of their best albums, particularly on the second disc. For example, Your Own Special Way is an ugly blemish on an otherwise perfect album, why they chose it over Blood on the Rooftops is mind boggling

I also felt they focused too much on the six albums from the trio era, granting them almost two full discs while compressing the six albums from the Gabriel era (one of which is a magnificent double album) into a single disc that ends all too soon. They don't even include anything from their first album, the only album not represented by at least one song on this collection.

But, I'll disregard that because most of the songs are remixed and sound a lot better than they do on the original albums. Prog fans will enjoy the last disc the most for obvious reasons, Pop fans will prefer the first disc, and probably much of the second. But I have a feeling all fans will find something to like on all discs once they put their prejudices aside.

In the end, you really need to buy the albums because this collection by no means represents their best work from each of the albums. The booklet tells you from which album each song comes from so it's a good guide to tell you where to go from there. You may want to wait until Nick Davis remixes all of the albums into quad sound SACD's (like he did with most of the songs on this collection).

Genesis is a great band and I'm sure new fans will find something to like on this collection. Old fans may want to pick this one up too, simply to hear the remixed songs. Three full discs worth of great music for 20 bucks is quite a steal too.