WE CAN'T DANCE

I've never been a particular fan of both Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins, and I could care less who was the better head of Genesis. It surprises me how much progressive rock fans hate Collins so much, though. I mean, just because he wasn't a so called 'prog rock genius' like Gabriel, doesn't mean that he deserves all the hate he gets.

But when Collins took over the band after Gabriel's departure following Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the band exploded onto the market. Ask anyone, people will say that they know Phil Collins as the head of Genesis more than they would say Gabriel was. This doesn't mean, as most people would suspect, that Collins threw away all essence of progressiveness the band used to be. In fact, this true goodbye to Genesis fans wasn't all bad. Of course Collins wasn't perfect; the band produced some pretty garbage-y releases like Invisible Touch (mainstream pop-rock), but I think this one sort of saved their asses from being completely hated forever more.

The album starts out with the alright quasi-dark 'No Son of Mine', which is a fairly underrated gem of the album, however the second song 'Jesus He Knows Me' is a bit too poppy for my tastes. 'Driving the Last Spike' is a decent comeback, but it doesn't start to get going until the perverted fantasy song of 'I Can't Dance' comes on. Maybe I was too harsh, it's not totally a lust-song, and the song itself is rather good. It's jazzy, catchy, and all the right things you'd expect out of a Collins-era song. 'Dreaming While You Sleep' is a cliche ballad, nothing special at all. Not bad I suppose, but nothing especially good, but not bad.

My main problem with this album is how many of the songs are bland. It's not that they're bad songs per-say, but it is true that it feels like they weren't trying very hard to produce original material. However, the closer epic of 'Fading Lights' is an extraordinary piece of progressive rock, and has understandably been deemed by many as the best song on the album. It is one of my choice picks as well.

So overall, I think that this album is not a bad finisher to this band. I would go as far as to say that Calling All Stations (though there are some songs I like on it) isn't as good as this album. I wouldn't say essential, but good