THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

As a prog fan, you should immediately be disgusted by the thought of buying a 'Best Of' album, as prog songs generally work better within the context of their respective albums. However, as we are here, I might as well give a go of reviewing it.

There are 3 CDs here, on which the tracklist is in reverse chronological order (apart from the title track from 'Calling All Stations' released in 1997, which is at the end of disc 1). Hence the tracks run from No Son Of Mine and I Can't Dance on Disc 1, to The Musical Box and The Knife on Disc 3. The three discs correspond to the three Genesis boxsets that have been released, which are 1983-1998, 1976-1982 and 1970-1975 respectively. Therefore, the Gabriel-era material gets one disc all to itself. The obvious reason that this order has been chosen is that Genesis get less and less commercial as you go further back in time, and the sort of people who would buy a 'Platinum Collection' are the sort who want to hear Jesus He Knows Me, and might never get round to hearing Disc 3 anyway.

With this in mind, it is surprising that the people at Virgin decided to include any Gabriel stuff at all! Maybe some of them were progheads? More likely that there would be the obvious negative reaction from hardcore Genesis fans if they decided not to include any old material at all.

As a compilation, you probably couldn't ask for a better collection of songs to represent the whole of Genesis' 30 year career, from prog to pop, from good to bad. There are songs from each and every album, except for the debut 'From Genesis to Revelation' as Virgin could not secure the rights to that particular album. There is also a non-album track, Paperlate that was released on EP in 1982. One thing I find funny is that the first two poppier discs contain 16 and 15 tracks respectively, but the final prog disc only contains 9 tracks, due to the length of some of the songs. You have to love prog for being so long sometimes.

The selection of tracks is quite good. On the first two CDs, these are usually the bigger hits, which saves you having to root around purchasing loads of CDs you don't want just to hear Turn It On Again or other Genesis hits. With the Gabriel-era disc, they didn't skimp on the prog at all. Whilst they included the poppier Counting Out Time and I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), they include some of the best prog from Genesis, including The Knife, The Musical Box, Firth of Fifth and all 23 minutes of Supper's Ready. A veritable feast of prog, and certainly a risky move for such a commerical release. I actually recieved this compilation one Christmas, before I had heard any Genesis, and after listening to Disc 3, I was very convinced by the band.

This is a compilation album that does very much what it says on the tin. You get loads of Genesis songs, and a good understanding for the group at all points in their history. Along with that, there is some fantastic prog on Disc 3. Personally, I dislike buying compilation albums, but if you're the sort of person that needs a quick dose of Genesis, this album is for you.