THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

Well OK, so you consider yourself a discriminating Genesis collector, right? Is this compilation for you? Well here's a question... did you buy the previous Greatest Hits compilation "Turn It On Again - The Hits" in order to get your hands on that 1999 version of "Carpet Crawlers?" If you answered yes, then "The Platinum Collection" might be for you. Die hards probably already have "Paperlate," and if you don't, the second Archive box set should be further up on your priority list. The radio edit of "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" was already covered by the afformentioned Hits compilation... so, what is left? Well, 2/3 of this set is remastered [leaning towards the old material too], that's what. The early Genesis material sounds absolutely fantastic on this set. The tracklisting is, for the most part, in reverse chronological order, which is preferrable. Some ommissions to be sure, but everyone has their own preferance and favorite tracks, and you can't fault the sheer amount of material on display here. The set also comes with a retrospective booklet featuring snippets of interviews with Banks, Collins, and Rutherford, so that is another reason for collectors who have to own everything to pluck down their money for this. So basically, you need to ask yourself... are the remastered versions of early Genesis tracks worth the ticket price? I leave that decision to you...