Genesis
We Can't Dance

THE REVIEW

Five long years pass between Invisible Touch and the next album, which is a significant amount of time for Genesis who need to reclaim their artistic credibility after the '80s that saw them as pioneers of great success, with all albums at number 1, but with little musical inspiration.

We Can't Dance is released on November 21, 1991, on double vinyl. The result of years of meditation is immediately evident from the opening notes of No Son Of Mine, where Banks' famous "trumpet call" opens a splendid song characterized by a growing rhythm made up of crisp drum beats where Collins' singing dominates with energy as he tells the sad story of the protagonist child, a great start.
The next track, Jesus he knows me, may seem banal in its musical structure, almost a return to the sad past, but everything is different, more refined, and balanced in its cheeky rhythm. The lyrics condemn the TV evangelists made in the USA, and the video is brilliant with Collins as the preacher and the others as his collaborators.
Driving The Last Spike is the most beautiful track on the album, 10 minutes in which Genesis tells the story of the workers who built the English railways. Although it's lengthy, it has nothing to do with the old Prog, it's a modern and fascinating sonic diversion, a great performance that highlights the band's rediscovered stylistic flair.
Fairly average songs are I can't dance, with Tony's extraordinary synth effect, Never a Time, and Living forever.
Notable performances include Dreaming While You Sleep and Fading Lights, while Hold On MY Heart is typically Collins-esque and detestable.
Also noteworthy is the splendid Tell Me Why, a pacifist song and its video showing the atrocities of a century.

Overall, the judgment is excellent, a beautiful album, the best since the days of Duke, a remarkable step forward in quality reminiscent of the transition from From Genesis... to Trespass.