INVISIBLE TOUCH

"Invisible Touch" is the thirteenth studio album of Genesis and that was released in 1986. It became and is remained by far, as the most commercially successful album of their entire musical career, and it eventually sold over fifteen million copies worldwide. It received in general, favourable reviews from critics, and catch Genesis at their commercial peak. However, some of them commented that "Invisible Touch" was more a Phil Collins' solo album than a Genesis' album. Perhaps due to that, it was also the most pop album of them, mainly based on electronic percussion and synthesizers.

"Invisible Touch" has eight tracks. All songs were written by Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins. The first track "Invisible Touch" is the title track. It was also released as a single and it became the most successful single in the band's lengthy history and was also their first and only single to be # 1 in the United States. This is a typical and pure pop song that was made to be a greatest hit. As a pop song, we are in presence of an excellent song. However, it has nothing to do with the progressive music. It seems to be a song written to be part of a Phil Collins' solo work. The second track "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" was the fourth single to be released from the album. It was the first of the two extended musical pieces on the album. This is a very good song with some progressive lines and once more, when he wants, Tony Banks can show his great musical skills. It's a very nice atmospheric song with many interesting musical passages. This is, in my opinion, one of the highlights of the album. The third track "Land Of Confusion" was one more single taken from the album, one of the four tracks of the album released as a single. It became a Genesis' classic song with a catchy rhythm and a beautiful melody, very nice and pleasant to hear. Of course this isn't exactly a progressive song but it's good enough to be remembered. Undoubtedly, we are in presence of an excellent pop rock song, with nothing to do with silly songs such as, "Who Dunnit?" or "Illegal Alien". The fourth track "In Too Deep" was another song to be released as a single on the album. This is clearly a Phil Collins' song with the entire DNA present on the songs released on his solo albums. This is an excellent pop song, one of the most beautiful, mellow and sweet songs ever made by him. I must confess that in some moments I like very much to hear some Phil Collins' songs. Still, this isn't, without any doubt, the right place for him to write a song like this. The fifth track "Anything She Does" is lyrically a song about pornography. It's about a man who is in love with a porn star and that can't have a relationship with her in the real life. Musically, it isn't, in my humble opinion, a great song, and it represents also, for me, one of the weakest points on the album. It seems to be a song put out of the place, which doesn't sound anything to a Genesis' song. It sounds too much to reggae and reminds me too much a song made by The Police. The sixth track "Domino" is divided into two parts, part one, "In The Glow Of The Night" and part two, "The Last Domino". The first part was released as the B side of their single "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", and the second part was released as the B side of their single "Invisible Touch". It was the second of the two extended musical pieces on the album. It's, without any doubt, the best track on the album and it's a song in the same vein of "Duke's Travels" and "Duke's End" from "Duke", "Dodo/Lurker" from "Abacab" and "Home By The Sea" and "Second Home By The Sea" from "Genesis". The seventh track "Throwing It All Away" was issued as the second single released from the album. The song is a soft rock ballad and is musically structured around the guitar riff of Mike Rutherford. It's a very decent song and a successful song but with nothing progressive on it. It's a soft pop song without anything more special to say about it, except that we are in presence of another Phil Collins' song that should have been released on a solo Collins' album. The eighth and last track "The Brazilian" is a song that reminds immediately "Los Endos" from "A Trick Of The Tail". This is a true fantastic and memorable instrumental track with many progressive elements and that soon became a classic Genesis' instrumental track. This is a song that features some experimental sounds and effects and that sounds a bit like a progressive song. It's undoubtedly with "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" and "Domino" the best and only progressive moments on the album. We even can say this is a wonderful and fantastic moment, and perfect enough, to close a nice and good album, really.

Conclusion: Sincerely, I don't consider "Invisible Touch" a bad Genesis' album. Probably it isn't even the weakest album of them. It's true that "Invisible Touch" is the less progressive and most popish album of all Genesis' albums. However, it has quality enough to be considered a good album and it can also be considered more balanced than some other albums from them. It's also, in a certain way, better than "Abacab" and "Genesis" is. It's much more balanced and it hasn't weak tracks like "Who Dunnit?" or "Illegal Alien". By the other hand, it isn't much less progressive than those albums are, and in terms of a non progressive album, is probably better than they are. It's true that is far from the class of most of their albums, but it has more fun than some things made by them. This is the typical 80's album. It rules.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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