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Collins' Genesis: last act.
Let's make a brief summary of Genesis' career from the second half of the '80s to 1992, the year of release for this "The Way We Walk".
In 1986, to the delight of the radios (as well as merchants, Virgin record label, and the wallet of Banks/Collins/Rutherford), "Invisible Touch" hits the stores. As many will know, it's an ultra-commercial product, explicitly made to sell: a cauldron of hits with almost no depth. The only tracks that are saved are precisely those that won't chart, namely Domino and The Brazilian… in a burst of generosity, I would also include Tonight Tonight Tonight among the acceptable ones.
After a five-year hiatus, the trio returns to the studio to record "We Can't Dance". The album, although quite inconsistent, is superior to its predecessor: alongside the usual slips into the musical vacuum, we can listen to pleasant and well-structured songs like Driving The Last Spike, Dreaming While You Sleep, and Fading Lights.
This "We Can't Dance" tour is where the concert "The Way We Walk" is taken from. The live concert is divided into two CDs sold separately (a clever move to satisfy everyone and maximize sales?): the first consists of all the chart hits of the '80s/'90s, while the second features more complex tracks, even with some unexpected "jumps" into the Gabriel era.
Let's move on to the analysis of the two discs…
Volume One: The Shorts.
The first track we find is the hit Land Of Confusion… a rare case where reducing the drum machines worsens the situation: at this point, the studio version, where the rhythm is highlighted in a more pronounced way, provides greater satisfaction.
The following tracks No Son Of Mine and Jesus He Knows Me do much better. The former is distinguished by its decidedly engaging sound and a good performance by Collins at the microphone… while the other is enhanced by an involved text denouncing the excessive wealth and frivolous life of the "cathodic tube preachers".
Throwing It All Away and I Can't Dance, extended to the brink of boredom, pave the way for one of the best songs of the post-"Duke" period. We are talking about Mama: I confess that the haunting melody and the primordial-digital beat have always exerted a magnetic fascination on me!
We return to a rather low level with the sentimental Hold On My Heart which, in a bad way, manages to revitalize the extremely flat studio version.
Now comes the last surge of the first volume with the pleasant easy-listening of That's All… in fact, from here to the end, we find In Too Deep (another excessively sweet piece), Tonight Tonight Tonight (which wouldn't be so bad if it hadn't been mutilated) and the insignificant Invisible Touch.
In essence, "Volume One", apart from a handful of enjoyable tracks, practically presents nothing significant.
We insert the second volume into the player… hoping to overturn a situation that, at the moment, doesn't look at all rosy.
Volume Two: The Longs.
Here it is truly the case to say: it is a completely different music. Even the trio, joined by session men Chester Thompson and Daryl Stuermer, seems much more cohesive and inspired.
The opening is entrusted to the Old Medley: certainly, the idea of cutting and stitching their best compositions is not very exciting… if nothing else, the fact of dusting off songs that the group hadn't played for over a decade is far from despicable. The first we find is the energetic Dance On A Volcano, promptly followed by The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and the conclusion of The Musical Box. Now it's the turn of the instrumental part of Firth Of Fifth: the rhythm is excellently paced by the double drums… moreover, Rutherford, assisted by Stuermer, manages to emulate Hackett's parts in a decently brilliant way. To close the medley, we find I Know What I Like whose tail includes That's All, Illegal Alien, Your Own Special Way, Follow You Follow Me , and Stagnation.
The tracks we find from here on cannot be properly defined as progressive: they are, rather, the best "extended songs" from the reduced-to-a-trio Genesis.
We can immediately hear Driving The Last Spike, which tells the pitiful conditions in which the workers assigned to the construction of the railways were forced to work in the 19th century. The piece, a real gem of the Collins era, is performed with surprising delicacy: less intrusive guitars and synths give it a charm superior to the already excellent studio counterpart. Following are the decent Domino and the interesting Fading Lights, in which we find a good solo by Banks.
Before the concluding Drum Solo, we find Home By The Sea/Second Home By The Sea… average for the first, fresh and intriguing for the second.
As was foreseeable, the pleasant "Volume Two" largely manages to eclipse the first disc, bringing the concert back to a sufficient average… if I really had to make two separate ratings, I would give "The Shorts" a scarce two stars and a solid four to "The Longs".
In conclusion, although "The Way We Walk" is a decent concert, it is still a product for completists that cannot compete with the magnificent "Live" and "Seconds Out". It is commendable, however, that Collins himself, already convinced of leaving the group, wanted to do something more compared to the previous "Invisible Touch" (and its related tour).
If someone is curious and wants to spend some money on it… I warmly recommend only the second volume.
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