•
Rating: There is a bastion of social psychology called the principle of authority. When a name, an institution, or something begins to gain consensus among humans, then beware of trying to change the features of that name, institution, or something. The phenomenon is well-presented in music. There's a name, let's say the name of a band... well, that name grows; from the smoky thoughts of a toilet bowl in the founders' houses, it expands first to brothels, then to bars, then it escapes the city's walls to overstep the grooves of kingdoms, landowners, the region, the nation, the continent, the planet, the galaxy, the universe... enough... otherwise, who the hell will play then? The subatomic particles? Well, after all, they are always better than that fart with a Vov breath from Vasco... Well, Pink Floyd without Waters have become platinum crap; Queen without Mercury two balls (Deacon and Taylor) with the curly dick (May), the Doors without Morrison a Chinese orphan renamed the child of an Iraqi couple (in this case the child would be a certain Ian Abstury... ), Nirvana without Cobain, Cobain without Nirvana... the egg without the chicken, an omelet without a crest, Genesis without Gabriel, a kind of Gabriel-like group. Genesis without Hakkett? another group, and Genesis without Collins?... obvious, you might say... THEY ARE NOT GENESIS ANYMORE... BUT NO; YOU FOOLS!!!!
Except for those few (and good) songs where good Phill (who resembles, ((indeed, I'm convinced it's really him)), a porn actor with a mustache who just last night, among this and that, tried with great difficulty to insert his flimsy copper wire into the tunnel of a knowledgeable Romanian), not without the contribution of the other two mates, designs an elegy to the mom (but in my opinion, the song "Mama" is a veiled goad at women who have abortions, which then, also according to me, are also abortions of women... !... or maybe our Phill reproaches his mother (an abortion of a woman, naturally... but) for not having aborted?...)), or declares all his generative impotence, confessing not to be the father of his own children ("No sons of mine" which, in my opinion, is the continuation of "Mama"). Well, as I was saying, except for those few valid episodes, Genesis with the porn actor Phill, have eaten so many and then again many boxes of beans... pouring them out in another form to the audience during the tours (the indigestion happened in the Year of the Lord 86/87...). Well... once the bean supply ran out, naturally that last aspermic testicle was retired... at least with Genesis... because he, undaunted, will continue in Hard production... (he will experiment at a vocal level even in cartoons... obviously... without balls anymore he couldn't just keep screwing Around Africans and Romanians!!!).
And at that point, what do the two surviving gentlemen Banks and Rutheford do? The only sensible thing to do: retire after 20 years of abstinence, producing for the last time some badass music... So the good Ray Wilson is called (he privately sleeps with normal women, not for show and behind a camera) and away... our ears can hear, no longer the cries of the bald dwarf, but gloomy and refined atmospheres... halfway between Black Sabbath (see the song "Dying for Love") and Queen (those without curly dick, though). I am referring to episodes like the superb title track or the even more majestic "Is not about us". Or finally, seriously take back that progressive rock definitively abandoned after that album where good Phill lit an incendiary cigarette... ("...and there were three..." he did have a mustache though!!!...), with masterful steps like "There Must Be Some Other Way" or "One man's fool". Guys, dispel the suggestions and don't be fooled by branded crap... still crap it is!! Episodes like Abacab or Invisible Touch represent the ass of the crap... better the ephemeral rebirth of the two poor imitators of themselves... or wouldn't it perhaps be better to say, of the originals, orphans of the failed roll drummer porn star?... bah... you be the judge... meanwhile I enjoy the record...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Congo (04:52)
You say that I put chains on you
But I don't think that's really true
But if you want to be free from me
You gotta lose me in another world
Send me to the Congo I'm free to leave
There's always somewhere anybody can lead
Send me to the Congo you have to believe
You can do it if you wanna just do what you please
Like a soldier ant
I will wait for the signal to act
To take a walk right through the door
If you don't want me here any more
Send me to the Congo I'm free to leave
There's always somewhere anybody can lead
Send me to the Congo you have to believe
You can do it if you wanna just do what you please
Into my heart you came
And gave a whole new meaning to my life
Into my world you brought a light
I thought it never would go out
Send me to the Congo I'm free to leave
There's always somewhere anybody can lead
Send me to the Congo you have to believe
You can do it if you wanna just do what you please
You can send me to the Congo I'm free to leave
There's always somewhere anybody can lead
Yes you can send me to the Congo, you have to believe
You can do it if you wanna just do what you please
I would never be the one to say you had no reason
To want me somewhere else far far away
But someday you may understand, someday you will see
That someone who would die for you is all I've ever been
Congo the Congo, if that's how it's got to be
Congo the Congo, if that's what you want from me
I would never be the one to say you had no reason
To want me somewhere else far far away
Someday you may understand someday you will see...
03 Shipwrecked (04:23)
I'm a million miles from anywhere, where can I be
Somewhere out on the ocean
Just take a look out on the horizon, what can you see
There's nothing there for me
I feel shipwrecked, I might as well be shipwrecked
I'm helpless and alone drifting out to sea
I can't believe what you said to me
Even standing on the corner of a busy city street
I still feel so lonely
Why do you say you want to be with me
But the next day say you don't
I'm shipwrecked, I might as well be shipwrecked
I'm helpless and alone drifting out to sea
I can't believe what you said to me
Without you I feel shipwrecked
But I can't let it show
A million miles away from anywhere, ooh, ooh, ohh
Is it my imagination
Or is it getting darker, are the waves getting higher
I'm a million miles from anywhere
A million miles from anything I know
You know that's why I'm shipwrecked
I might as well be shipwrecked
I'm helpless and alone drifting out to sea
I can't believe what you said to me
You know that's why I'm shipwrecked, shipwrecked
Losing my direction
Please come and rescue me (shipwrecked)
Shipwrecked
Shipwrecked
Shipwrecked
Shipwrecked...
08 Uncertain Weather (05:29)
A day of uncertain weather
Captured in a frame forever
A face in a faded photograph
He must have had a life
Maybe with a family
People who meant everything to him
A sinner, a saint, a soldier
Caught up in a war he never
Had a chance to start or build a life
All gone long ago
Leaving no trace
Disappearing like smoke in the wind
To become just a face without a name
Leaving no trace
Disappearing like smoke in the wind
Hopes and fears important plans
Forgotten memories
Footsteps fading in the sand, ooh
Schemes and dreams small and grand
Nothing left to see
Footsteps fading in the sand, ooh
Someone who cast a shadow
Maybe just a lazy man
Doesn't make much difference now it's true
A day of uncertain weather
Captured in a frame forever
A face in a faded photograph
All gone long ago
Leaving no trace
Disappearing like smoke in the wind
To become just a face without a name
One more to add to the total
Of those never heard of again
Yes he's gone
Just a face without a name
Leaving no trace
Disappearing like smoke in the wind
All gone
Just a face without a name
Leaving no trace
Disappearing like smoke in the wind...
09 Small Talk (05:02)
Don't talk back to me, don't talk back to me
Don't talk back to me, don't talk
Going round in circles, hearing too many points of view
Just words to tire me out, small talk I could do without
I would be amazed if you returned to see things my way
Now that you've been disrespectful to my sense of pride
Isn't it a shame that you were lying when you said to me (small talk)
I was the only one, you and I were meant to be
I expect you'll never really feel the way that I do
All of this is with regret, I'm sure you will agree
Say something to me, anything at all
I want you to mean what you say
I've seen all I want to see, and you mean the world to me
I've lived for each moment to be with you, with you, with you
Small talk, small talk, small talk, small talk
You say I don't talk enough, that applies to both of us
Don't try to sound me out, something I could do without
So much goes on inside your head, I often wonder
Have you heard enough to know, there's nothing left to say
Say something to me, anything at all
I want you to mean what you say
I've seen all I want to see, and you mean the world to me
I've lived for each moment to be with you, with you, with you
Small talk
Small talk
Ooh small talk
That's all I ever hear
Small talk
I'll be alright
It may take sometime
But I'll be alright (don't talk back to me)
I'll be alright (don't talk back to me)
(don't want to be alone, nothing worth to carry on)
I'll be alright (don't talk back to me)
(try hard to understand, you won't seem to lend a hand)
I'll be alright (don't talk back to me)
(without you'll fail to see, you never spare a thought for me)
I'll be alright (don't talk back to me)
(so many things you said, going round in circles)
I'll be alright (don't talk back to me)
(I'll rise above it all, enough to see another day)
I'll be alright
I'll be alright
Don't talk back to me...
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By AR (Anonima Recensori)
The corpse became a zombie thanks to the black magic performed by the amusing duo Tony Banks-Mike Rutherford.
"Calling All Stations" ... is a terrible album that makes even "Abacab" seem like a masterpiece.
By London
"...Calling All Stations.. speaks of solitude, incommunicability, alienation, and among the group’s albums, it is the one where social themes are addressed the most close to the end of the twentieth century."
"The Dividing Line (one of the most beautiful tracks in their production) where for the first time in the group’s history there is an almost drum solo."
