Genesis
Platinum Collection

THE REVIEW

The "Platinum Collection". 

In recent years, several bands (or those representing them) have given in to this yet another commercial ploy. However, while encapsulating the highlights of one's musical career in three CDs might be a good idea for some groups or singer-songwriters, for the Genesis, it is as absurd, useless, and insulting as one can imagine.
In fact, while it was acceptable for Collins, Rutherford, and Banks to collect their hit singles from 1979 to 1991 (something they had already done multiple times), something horrible happens in this Platinum Collection!   

Just take a look at the cover, where six figures from the band's album covers appear, to understand what I'm referring to: indeed, surrounded by a very ugly hand and an equally ugly shadow of a little man with an arm raised toward the sky, here appear the woman with the fox mask, the unforgettable symbol of Foxtrot, and the blonde Cyntha in the act of decapitating her poor brother Henry (if I say "The Musical Box," does it ring a bell?).                                                                                        

To recall the band’s already shaky but not yet entirely collapsed years remain a frightened bandit (A Trick Of The Tail) and a "duke" dressed in green, vaguely reminiscent of a shy Banks nostalgically looking at the past, but knowing well that it suits him to continue to "fatten up".

In short, the Genesis were not ashamed to place, or let others place, their great masterpieces of the distant past and the garbage (for they are garbage, with few exceptions) of the near past on the same level?

Well, after this necessary preface, let's start talking about the collection. The three discs trace the band’s career backwards, from 1991 to 1970 (they would include Calling All Station, from '98, but I don’t consider it a Genesis album). This means that in a certain sense, the further you go, the nicer the music becomes, but this is subjective. Objective, however, is the obscenity of the first CD (1991-1981), for which I will not waste unnecessary words. The little that is listenable here boils down to "Mama", "Home By The Sea" and "Second Home By The Sea", all taken from the mediocre album Genesis (1983); for the rest, 13 pathetic pop songs alternate, a bit melancholy, a bit cheerful, but always and forever empty. I will never stop wondering how they managed to achieve the overwhelming success that still makes them memorable today, as bad as they are.

For the second disc (1981-1976), the discussion changes: there are still rather sad moments ("Keep It Dark", "Misunderstanding", "Follow You Follow Me"), but the pop that streams into our ears is a bit more elaborate and can be likable. "Abacab" and "Turn It On Again", are valid examples of the above statement.  And if the mini-suite "Behind The Lines"/"Duchess", from the album Duke (1980), still leaves a bitter taste in some mouths, from the more than decent "Undertow" onwards, it really begins to make sense. The tracks from Wind And Wuthering ('77) and A Trick Of The Tail ('76), with the exception of the syrupy "Your Own Special Way", actually show a band still determined to make good music, and that leaves the great Steve Hackett (listen to "In That Quiet Earth") that solo space he hadn’t fully managed to conquer in The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. However, the guitarist probably noticed that the minds of his companions had begun to be infiltrated by germs not dear to him. So he wisely let the band make its turn towards pop charts without his company.

Third disc (1974-1970).

What a surprise? The producers of this collection have even decided to dedicate an entire disc to the band’s most fertile period, the one with Peter Gabriel as the vocalist. But they could have avoided it since it is precisely this third CD that is the most pathetic part of the set. Why? I’ll tell you right away: every Genesis song (those with Peter) makes sense when listened to in a well-determined concept, that is, the album in which it was initially included. Let me explain better: how can you listen to "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," "Counting Out Time," and "Carpet Crawlers" separately from the rest of the concept? Oh, sure, you listen to them anyway, but you can’t fully appreciate them. And the same goes for the other six songs of this third CD, all undoubtedly wonderful;  I won’t dwell on describing them (as I would like) only because the albums they’re from are already multi-reviewed on this site, but I’ll repeat once again, they are songs that have no meaning stuck inside a "The Best Of". 

So, to conclude, if you know nothing about this group, don’t make the same mistake that the undersigned naively stumbled into two years ago: if you have 30 euros to spend, don’t waste them on this nonsense (to which I cannot give anything more than the rating I assigned to it, as it is totally useless) ? Buy Foxtrot, or Selling England By The Pound, or whatever inspires you the most, but not the Platinum Collection. And if you want a little advice, don’t worry about what the Genesis did after 1981. I assure you, you aren’t missing anything.