ARCHIVE #2 1976-1992

This 3 CD Boxed Set is good, but, with Genesis increasingly becoming a more Pop Rock influenced band since 1978, the contrasts between the tracks are more clear. So, I divide the tracks in three groups:

The Live Tracks. For me, the most interesting thing in this release, with the tracks recorded between1976 and 1980 being the most interesting. It is good to have very good live versions with good mixings of "Entangled", "Deep in the Motherlode", Ripples", "Burning Rope", "Duke`s Travels" and "The Lady Lies". The live tracks from 1981 are still good, despite being Pop influenced songs ("Not Reply at All" and "Man on the Corner"). But from the 1984 live tracks, only "It`s Gonna Get Better" is good, with "Illegal Alien" being a disposable track as I consider it as the worst song they composed. The live tracks recorded during the "Invisible Touch" tour, "The Brazilian" and "Your Own Special Way", are not very interesting, despite the latter has a string arrangement. Why they didn`t release a live version from 1977 instead? From the "We Can`t Dance" tour, there is "Dreaming While You Sleep", which I think that it is the same version which was released in the "Never a Time " CD single in 1993, and it is a good version.

The B-sides and tracks taken from E.Ps. Again, the most interesting for me are the songs recorded between 1976 and 1980 , but again, the tracks recorded in 1981 are still good. Among the best are: "It`s Yourself" (1976), "Pigeons" and "Inside and Out" (from the "Spot the Pigeon" E.P., 1977),"The Day the Light Went Out" and "Vancouver" (1978), "Open Door" and "Evidence of Autumn" (1980). The tracks recorded during the "Abacab" album sesions (1981) are still good ("You Might Recall",and "Paperlate", both from the "3 x 3" E.P., and "Submarine" and "Naminanu"). I still think that "Match of the day" (from the "Spot the Pigeon" E.P.,1977) and "Me and Virgil" (from the "3 x 3" E.P., 1981) could have been better choices to be included in this Box Set (but were not included as the band members didn`t like them anymore then) than the inclusion of the tracks recorded during the "Invisible Touch" ("Do the Neurotic", I`d Rather Be you", "Feeding the Fire") and "We Can`t Dance" album sessions ("On the Shoreline", "Hearts of Fire"), all of them very Pop tracks which show why they were released as B-sides of singles.

The less interesting tracks in this Box Set are "Mama (Work in Progress)" and the inclusion of the 12" remixes of "Invisible Touch", "Land of Confusion", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" and "I Can`t Dance", which could be only interesting for the most "obsessive fans" of their Pop years. I think that instead of including all these tracks it could have been better to include more live tracks, like the 1976 tour version of "Dance on a Volcano" with Bill Bruford, more live tracks from their 1977 ,1978 and 1980 tours, like "Eleventh Earl of Mar", "One for the Vine", "Your Own Special Way", "All in a Mouse`s Night", "In that Quiet Earth/ Afterglow", "Inside and Out" , "Say it`s Alright, Joe", etc.