INVISIBLE TOUCH

The first Genesis album I heard and I assume I'm not the only one as this is the bands most commercially successful album. One of the main reasons for this success was that this album followed Phil's hugely successful solo album No Jacket Required. When I was a kid I loved the video for "Land Of Confusion." The video for that song almost won the MTV Video Of The Year award. Who won that award instead? Some guy named Peter Gabriel for his "Sledgehammer" video. I actually know people who have never heard the Genesis original, only the cover by the band Disturbed.

Rutherford is responsible for two of the albums best songs: "Confusion" and "Throwing It All Away." The former is probably my favourite song here and I've always thought it had a great middle section. The latter is one of the better songs they did in the 1980s. The title track is one of the better pop singles of the decade. "In Too Deep" I never really cared for. "Anything She Does" was always my least favourite song here. I hadn't listened to the album for years but I never remembered the verses being so catchy and memorable. Still hate the rest of the song though.

The album version of "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" is longer than the radio edit because of the great instrumental middle section. This is the the proggiest of the hit singles from the album. "Domino" is the longest and proggiest song but it's not a highlight. I honestly didn't remember much about this track. The first 4 1/2 minutes are good and then comes an awful disco/synth-pop part that sounds more 1982 than 1986. The rest of the track is nothing special. "The Brazilian" is a good and proggy instrumental which also happens to be the most "80s" sounding thing on the whole album.

The music here is good for what it is: mid-80s pop/rock. Even at this point they still have longer than average songs. At least one person who bought this album must have thought: "Songs over 5 minutes long...is that even legal?" Genesis were never a Collins side-project, not even on Invisible Touch. I find it amusing how Phil gets blamed for everything while Mr. Gabriel (with his album So) and Mr. Rutherford (with his Mike & The Mechanics) get a pass. The fact is Genesis never completely left their prog roots behind and they *always* had a pop side to them. Unlike a train-wreck like From Genesis To Revelation, this is actually *good* pop music. Not recommended for prog fans but some may enjoy it. 2 stars.