WE CAN'T DANCE

This album is much better than the "Invisible Touch" album, in my opinion. I consider this album a better way to say "goodbye" than the "Calling all stations" album. This was the last album recorded with Phil Collins, who after some years of success as soloist, returned to the band for this album. He didn`t need to return, really, because by 1991 he was in his best period as soloist, both in the quality of some of his music and in his success. Maybe he returned due to contractual obligations. This album has good "matured" lyrics, most of them written by Collins. It has a mixture of some "Progressive songs" ("Driving the Last Spike", "Living Forever", "Way of the World", "Fading Lights"), good ballads ("Never a Time", "Hold on my Heart", and "Since I Lost You", this last song a good gesture for Eric Clapton who lost one of his children in an accident), humorous songs with critical lyrics ("Jesus He Knows Me", "We Can`t Dance"), songs about social problems ("Driving While You Sleep", "Tell Me Why"), songs with "existential" lyrics ("Living Forever", "Way of the World", "Fading Lights"). In this album, the mixture of "serious songs" with some "humorous songs" really did a balance. After the "We Can`t Dance" tour in 1992, GENESIS played a last concert with Collins in September 1993 (a benefit concert in England). In interviews years later, he said that he knew that he wanted to leave the band in 1993, because he was tired of the routine in GENESIS, among other things, but that he took the decision to leave until March 1996. Without Collins, GENESIS lost a lot of things. Collins helped GENESIS to survive as a band after Gabriel`s departure (and Hackett`s departure, too, but in a different way). They also lost a "showman", because he did a balance to the more "serious" personalities of Banks and Rutherford and to some of the songs which were "serious", both in albums and in tours. He contributed to the songwriting of many songs, some of them "humorous" songs as he never took himself or the band very seriously. GENESIS also lost a very good drummer, singer and composer. I agree that not all of his songs as soloist are very good, and his solo music became really unlistenable for me since he started to compose soundtrack music for Disney`s movies. But also Rutherford`s MIKE AND THE MECHANICS`s music is not very interesting for me, like some of Banks` most commercial solo projects. So, it was better to have these three musicians playing together in GENESIS. By 1991, they still were recording good studio albums like this. But by 1997, GENESIS without Collins wasn`t the same anymore, and they didn`t have the same success.