Genesis
...Calling All Stations...

THE REVIEW

The reason why this LP was completely ignored during the last farewell tour is a shame.

"...Calling All Stations.." is the last studio work by Genesis (1997), often overlooked as much as their debut, immature, from the late '60s. There’s a difference between fans and the authors themselves because this work contains at least a handful of beautiful songs, slightly over three minutes each, which the band hadn't produced since '78. "Shipwrecked" is beautiful in its melancholic stride in which Tony's keyboards carve out a fitting space with synthetic string sounds, and not to mention the extremely enjoyable ballad "Not About Us" or the very gritty title track. "...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. Collins isn’t there anymore but it doesn’t matter because these songs suit Wilson’s hoarse and deep voice, a particularly fitting singer and collaborator selected by the remaining members. In this work, there’s a lot of Tony, for better with "The Dividing Line" and for worse with the dreadful "Congo", but as producer Nick Davis, who had worked on "We Can’t Dance", suggested, Ray Wilson could and should have been involved more because the ideas were good.

The courage to change once again in their career would be rewarded with decent success despite the progressive sound being ancient history, pop-rock outdated and indeed "...Calling All Stations.." represents a continuation of the stylistic simplicity of "We Can’t Dance", but with much less gloss, more raw where Banks' keyboards either limit themselves to embroidering fabrics in the background or generate hammering and hypnotic sounds like in the powerful and beautiful "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.