Genesis
The Video Show

THE REVIEW

With the recent release of their "Platinum Collection," Genesis have also made all their videos available on DVD starting from "A Trick Of The Tail".

The product is most likely to interest completists more than casual fans, mainly because the most interesting material is tied to the videos of the '70s, finally all gathered here, while those who grew up in the '80s with MTV will surely remember many promotional clips related to "Genesis" and "Invisible Touch".

The packaging is very well done and inside it shows all the original covers, plus the publication data of all the tracks; the cover featuring the band's logo from "We Can't Dance" is also nice. The attention to detail is especially focused on the menu, which offers a nice animation showcasing the most significant images from the albums in question; however, the extras are missing. The DVD opens with tracks from the 1991 work, the video for "No Son Of Mine" is very beautiful and deals with the story of violence narrated in the song, "I Can't Dance" is supported by a very ironic video well interpreted by Collins, but the three offer their best in "Jesus He Knows Me," with Phil as a guru, Tony and Mike as collaborators, for an amusing parody of U.S. TV evangelists.

The decidedly worst videos, coincidentally, are those tied to the promotion of "Invisible Touch," "Land Of Confusion," featuring foam rubber puppets (very popular at the time) dealing with a nuclear confrontation "by chance" triggered by Regan while in bed with his wife; in the video accompanying "Anything She Does", Benny Hill makes a cameo, the rest is pure boredom.
In contrast, the videos of the singles from "Genesis" are very beautiful and interesting, "Mama" is slightly unsettling with Collins' famous almost demonic grin halfway through the song, "Illegal Alien" is pure fun, with the three in a Mexican setting dealing with visas and passports (Collins with a mustache and toupee is decidedly ridiculous), also cute is "That's All" with the three improvising as hobos. The videos from "Abacab" are all linked to the pure and simple execution of the track; there is a bit of irony in "No Reply At All", but otherwise they have little interest, thus also is the execution of "Paperlate", a horrendous, jarring irritating game from 1982.

From "Duke" instead, the videos for "Misunderstanding", "Turn It On Again" and "Duchess", the latter features a bearded Collins typical of the period. Very beautiful are the videos for "Follow You Follow Me" and "Many Too Many", melancholy and quite interesting performances, from "A Trick Of The Tail" the fun "Rubbery Assault And Battery", with Collins playing the thief and the others as police officers, and the video for the title track, with Phil shrinking and hopping first on Tony's piano and then on Steve's guitar fretboard, remarkable also is the video with the execution of "Ripples". Closing are the videos from the last studio work, sufficient, and the '99 version of "Carpet Crawlers" which picks up the storyline of "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway".

A well-crafted collection indeed, for completists and fans of the legendary English group.