A great CD

Shortly after I became a big fan of Phil Collins, I picked this CD up at the local music store. Since I haven't heard alot of Genesis songs, I really can't say if there were some songs that should have been included on here or not. I think the songs on here are good though. My personal favorite is NO SON OF MINE which was off their 1991 album; WE CAN'T DANCE. It has a great beat and good lyrics. The song talks about a man who ran away from home when he was a boy and is now fighting his fears to go back to confront his dad. The worst song on this CD is probably I CAN'T DANCE, which is also from the album; WE CAN'T DANCE. To me, this song sounds like a wannabe ACDC song with bad lyrics. That is the only bad song on the CD. Here is a complete list of all the songs(next to each song is the album it was from):



01.Turn It On Again(1980 Duke) 6/5

02.Invisible Touch(1986 Invisible Touch) 5/5

03.Mama(1983 Genesis) 6/5

04.Land Of Confusion(1986 Invisible Touch) 4/5

05.I Can't Dance(1991 We Can't Dance) 1.5/5

06.Follow You, Follow Me(1978 And Then There Were Three)6/5

07.Hold On My Heart(1991 We Can't Dance) 6/5

08.Abacab(1981 Abacab) 6/5

09.I Know What I Like(1973 Selling England By The Pound) 5/5

10.No Son Of Mine(1991 We Can't Dance) 8/5

11.Tonight, Tonight, Tonight(1986 Invisible Touch) 8/5

12.In Too Deep(1986 Invisible Touch) 6/5

13.Congo(1997 Calling All Stations) 3.5/5

14.Jesus He Knows Me(1991 We Can't Dance) 6/5

15.That's All(1983 Genesis) 4.5/5

16.Misunstanding(1980 Duke) 6/5

17.Throwing It All Away(1986 Invisible Touch) 5/5

18.The Carpet Crawlers(1999 Turn It On Again[Remix]) 5/5

An album of one of the greatest rock bands of all time

Genesis is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. There are many reasons to this. One, the band lasted from the late 60's to 1999, an amazing frame of time only equaled and surpassed by the Kinks and the Rolling Stones. Two, the band spun off two solo artist superstars: Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. Three, the band released many hit songs and albums like "That's All", "Invisible Touch", "Land of Confusion", and "I Can't Dance". "Turn It On Again: The Hits" is packed with the hits from Genesis.



Some fans are going to pick up this album and be throughly disappointed. Why? Because this is a hits album, meaning most of the progressive era Genesis is gone. Genesis went through four (or five, depending on if you count the Anthony Phillips/Chris Stewart era) stages. Stage one was the original quintet, maybe one the most talented group of musicians this side of the Beatles. Peter Gabriel was lead vocals and flute, Phil Collins was backing vocals and drums, Tony Banks was keyboards, Mike Rutherford was guitar/bass, and Steve Hackett was guitar. With Gabriel as the head of the band, the songs were of epic proportions, emphasizing stage theatrics, heavy make-up, and complex musical arrangments. The music is not easy to access and understand right away, making for art rock at it's most progressive. Though critics and hard core fans will claim this is Genesis at it's strongest, it is definitely an acquired taste and takes time and patience to grow on you. I definitely recommend picking up the albums "Selling England By the Pound" and "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", as they are beautifully produced albums. This album, however, locks onto stages 2-3. These are the stages of when Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett left and Phil Collins took over as the lead singer of the band and the sound changed.



The newly formed trio stayed into their progressive roots at first, and created some pop songs during this time with a progressive ting. These include "Turn It On Again", "Abacab", and "Follow You, Follow Me". One hit from this stage, "Misunderstanding", sounds much more like a stage 3 song than a stage 2. This stage, which is stage 2 from 1975 to about 1981, showed Genesis staying true to progressive form, but starting to do more pop songs. However, with Phil seeing solo success and the progressive rock landscape changing with the new wave 80's, Genesis changed their sound completely with their 1983 release. Making the album self-titled to ensure fans that Genesis was transforming and was a new band from the 70's incarnation, the album was heavy on studio production, synthesizers, and new-wave style instrumentation. It produced many hits, and two of them, the haunting "Mama" and the top ten mega hit "That's All", are on this disc and show Genesis growing into prolific hit makers. 1986's "Invisible Touch" was one of the strongest pop/rock albums of the 80's. Many tracks

are included from this album: The keyboard/synthesizer heavy number one title track, the number three hard rocker "Land of Confusion" (famous for it's very creative music video), "Throwing It All Away", the mysterious/deep "Tonight Tonight Tonight", and the popular ballad "In Too Deep". Around this time some people started crticizing the band for sounding too much like Phil Collins solo material (more so in the ballads than rock numbers), but that didn't stop the fans, albums, and songs from becoming popular. It took five years after this album for the band to get back together to release "We Can't Dance" (a tongue in cheek title by the band, making fun of how unusually popular they were despite their older, less hip image compared to the other young pop stars of the time) in 1991. The album, which hit number one on the charts, said goodbye to the 80's by not being so dependent on synths and keyboards (though they still are in massive supply), thus making for a more mellow and mature sound. Many songs from this album are included as well, such as the peppy "I Can't Dance", the romantic "Hold On My Heart", the humorous satire on religious fanatics with "Jesus He Knows Me", and the melancholy "No Son of Mine." After this album, Collins would completely focus on his solo career and leave the band. This would put the hit making stage (stage 3, 1983-1991) to a close. Stage four would keep Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, but add Ray Wilson as the vocalist and studio musicians for drums/second guitar. One album would be released from this period, "Calling All Stations" (highly underrated), and one song from this stage (stage 4, post-Phil Collins), "Congo", is on the album. For Gabriel fans, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" is included and the original quintet reunites to make a new version of the beautiful "Carpet Crawlers". (Adding two songs from stage one, 1970-1975, featuring the original five and making for a great balance of all the time frames.)



Yes, some songs are missing ("No Reply At All", "Never A Time", etc.) and there are some edits ("Mama", "Abacab", "Tonight Tonight Tonight"), but for a compilation of the hit songs from one of the strongest bands in rock history, this is the album to pick up. Get it today.

An Excellent Introduction To Genesis

Ever since I first heard "Invisible Touch", I have been a huge fan of Genesis. However, I never found the time to pick up one of their cd. Fortunately, that dilemma was solved when "Turn It On Again: The Hits", an 18 song set featuring all my favorites from the radio plus a few songs that were new to me that I really enjoyed.



For all of Genesis's biggest and most popular hits, this collection can't be beat. Almost every top 40 hit they ever had is here, including "Invisible Touch" (a number one hit), "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", "In Too Deep", "Misunderstanding", "I Can't Dance" and my all time favorite "Hold On My Heart". I also enjoyed the tracks I wasn't as familliar with, such as "Abacab", "Mama" and "Turn It On Again". And fans of the old Genesis get a special treat as former members Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel rejoin the group for a new version of "Carpet Crawlers".



Overall, a great collection of Genesis's best songs. This cd is a must for any fans of pop, rock and roll or prog rock. Also recommended is "We Can't Dance", "Invisible Touch" and "The Lamb Lies Down On The Broadway".