LIVE - THE WAY WE WALK VOLUME ONE - THE SHORTS

'The Way We Walk Volume One - The Shorts' is a live album from Genesis that only contains songs from their self-titled album, 'Invisible Touch,' and 'We Can't Dance.' Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest fan of these albums, so the material that they included from those albums makes me feel ambivalent towards this live album. Most of the songs included on 'The Way We Walk Volume One - The Shorts' are songs that I enjoy. However, there are a couple songs that are hard to ignore when looking at the album as a whole because of how unpleasant they are to listen to.

"Land of Confusion" is an excellent show opener and one that I enjoy even more live because it contains real drums. The concluding section to "No Son of Mine" is elongated with a guitar solo. Daryl Stuermer plays a great guitar solo on "Jesus He Knows Me," which is also enlongated. I prefer this live version to the studio version. There is a call-and-response between Phil Collins and the audience during the beginning of "Throwing It All Away." Phil Collins sings a melody and the audience sings that same melody back to him, which is similar to what Freddie Mercury and many other artists did when performing. The song ends nicely. "I Can't Dance" is even worse than the studio version because it's elongated.

"Mama" is one of my favorite Genesis songs, and hearing it live on this album is glorious, though it doesn't stray too much from the original version, as does "That's All" and "In Too Deep." The ending of "Hold On My Heart" goes on a bit too long for my liking. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" is unfortunately included on this live album. Luckily, it is an abridged version without the pointless instrumental section. "Invisible Touch" closes this volume, and it's even more irritating to listen to in a live context. The song is elongated, and Phil Collins' vocals are incredibly annoying. The change of lyrics to "she will mess up your life" to "she will f&$% up your life" is quite jarring, especially because it juxtaposes the upbeat music.

In conclusion, 'The Way We Walk Volume One - The Shorts' is a mediocre live album. It would make sense to think that I would like the second volume more since it contains more songs that I like from the band, but I feel the same towards that album. Quite honestly, I'm not sure if the material is the main problem for why I don't return to this album much at all. Either way, unless you really like these songs, I wouldn't recommend this live album. 4/10