GENESIS REVISITED

Hackett's aim with this CD was to add "a dimension to the songs that was originally lacking". Well, he has added something to a lot of the songs, but whether it's what he intended is another matter.

There is a stellar line of musicians here - John Weeton (sic), Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, Paul Carrack and more - and it all starts off promisingly with "Watcher of the Skies" with a good vocal from Wetton. Bruford's drums have that ABWH sound to them which detracts a bit, but still a good effort. Unfortunately it's largely downhill from there on. "Dance on a Volcano" features a spoken "vocal" from Hackett which renders the song almost unlistenable for me. "Deja Vu" is quite a nice song, one that Gabriel started around the time of SEBTP and Hackett finished off for this CD. The ever reliable Paul Carrack puts in an excellent vocal here. "For Absent Friends" is given a waltz treatment, "Your Own Special Way" is made even cheesier with some horrible 80's sounding keyboards, "Firth of Fifth" replaces the opening piano section with some tinkly keyboards, which actually works better than you might think, but the instrumental section is changed and not for the better. "The Fountain of Salmacis" is one of the bettter efforts and "Los Endos" is a stirring end to it all, but in between is a truly horrible sort of 1920's reggae version of "I Know What I Like".

Overall, this adds nothing to the originals, although at least the production is better. I can't really see anyone preferring any of these over the Genesis originals.