GENESIS

Genesis release another pop ballad album with some detestable songs to coincide with the 'Invisible Crutch' and 'Abacrap' albums. On this offering you are looking down the barrel of syrupy pop excess where the musos are nothing more than session musicians and Collins annoys like nothing else particularly on the infectious and horrible Illegal Alien. The songs were designed to lock into your skull and force you to go out and buy the single to make the band rich and the management. This it did of course and the radio was saturated with Collins voice and it drove nails into the prog history; all but dumped only to be replaced by inane trash such as Taking It All Too Hard, Just A Job To Do, and It's Gonna Get Better.

Illegal Alien deserves a place as one of the most detestable Genesis tracks complete with a pathetic attempt at humour with Collins' racist Mexican accent and equally offensive lyrics. The filmclip is memorable for all the wrong reasons, as is the melody. It is so annoying but the melody will stick to you like stink on a skunk; you cannot wash it off but you will be dying to do so.

There is one redeeming moment in the form of Home By The Sea that segues immediately into the powerful melodies of Second Home By The Sea with some incredible dark tones and a wonderful structure. That's All is okay or perhaps I have been desensitised to it as it has permeated the radio waves as much as Invisible Touch forcing my brain to put up with the synth-soaked horn sound and electronic drums that spews 80s mediocrity. I don't mind Mama either, as it has some chilling atmospheres similar to In The Air Tonite, the best of Collin's solo career, but it doesn't save the album from yet another 2 star rating during this turbulent 80s era.

The front cover, by the way, is a picture of a toy sold door to door from the Avon lady, shaped numbered blocks that toddlers poked into similar shaped holes in a ball. Perhaps this is ironic because Genesis were simply going by the numbers, poking music into moulded holes to appease the masses; they were no longer out of the box musically, they were being moulded and shaped into just another throwaway sound ? and what a waste of talent!

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