Genesis - Invisible Touch
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Free Music Notes for Invisible Touch
Free Music Review: An Album For Everyone - Old and New Fans
Hit: 5 Stars
This Genesis album was released in 1986 and gave them massive hits with the title track and "Land of Confusion" that both feautured cathcy lyrics and alot of fun, especially the humouristic video of "Confusion". By this album Genesis was pretty much a pop/rock band, and they had abandoned their progressive roots to the major part, atleast according to older fans that still remembered the 10 minute long musical masterpieces far far away from the pop charts. Genesis renaissance was something that started already when Peter Gabriel left in 1976 and Steve Hackett right after, leaving the band as a Trio with Collins, Rutherford and Banks. When Abacab was released we saw glimpses of what was coming and by eponymous Genesis in 1983 and this album, they had transformed into a pop/rock band that were popular on the charts with both shorter songs and more mainstream with synthesizers and drum machines. All bands envolve, who can really blame them? Progressive rock lost alot of it's impact in the 80's when new wave, and synth pop took over the charts. It was almost inevitable that Genesis would go more mainstream, however they don't totally abandon their roots. On several songs here we still see their progressive sides, even if the major part of the album is radio friendly.
The title track is a pop song and it was one of their biggest hits. The lyrics speaking of a woman whose qualities go beyond just what meets the eye. It got a killer hook and is a uptempo perfect for a hit single. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" is one of 3 progressive sounding songs of this album, not bad considering that there are only 8 songs of this album. This song is close to 9 minutes. Starts slow with great slow percussionn, but midway it got a long instrumental part, Collins get's back finnishing the song even more emotional then before. Great track!. "Land Of Confusion" perhaps their most memorable song of the 80's, is a satire of the cold war era with Thatcher, Gorbachev and Reagan especially, portaited in the video as puppetes. The video became a classic MTV hit. It also got everything that a pop song should have. "Into Deep" is a power ballad that feautured in the film Mona Lisa. It got a great chorus and resembles alot of Collins solo hits, but this is one of his best ballads.
"Anything She Does" is a typical uptempo Collins song I'd say, it feautures catchy horns and is very happy. Although Banks wrote the lyrics it sound more like Collins musically. "Domino" is also a progressive song, it got 2 parts "In The Glow Of The Nigh" and "The Last Domino". It's over 10 minutes all in one. Part 1 is pretty slow, Musically this one is very memorable, it got a sweet melody quite typical for the 80's while Part 2 is uptempo, with more right forward lyrics and more drums used. "Throwing It all Away" is a semi-ballad, We've heard it before, but this is a great song and suited this album well. The last song called "The Brazilian" is a almost 5 minute instrumental, I believe it's supposed to sound Brazilian influenced with it's drum loops. It also feautures synthesizers and a pretty catchy melody. A good closer, where they show that they haven't abandoned their roots, even if this new wave song is diffrent that the art/progressive they used to do.
Overall, A great album and actually one of their best selling to date, it's a hybrid of old and new. Some catchy new wave pop songs made for the charts with effective hooks and melodies and a few long Progressive numbers that wouldn't make older fans dissapointed. Genesis are defenitely not glory hunters, they still stick to their roots on several songs, but just like most bands they are evolving with time. "Invisible Touch" is a great album, the only problem I got with it it's the lenght. 45 minutes and only 8 songs. Their upcoming album "We Can't Dance" was 71 minutes. All of the songs are good though, so it get's a high vote.
Free Music Review: The genius of Genesis
Hit: 4 Stars
Alright, I admit I'm not a huge fan of latter day Genesis. As a relative youngin', I started getting into Genesis between Abacab and their 1983 self-titled release. I got into them by breaking my teeth on their progressive masterpieces from the '70s -- Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb. That era marked the imaginative, creative peak of Genesis as master songwriters and musicians whose capabilities transcended music and delved into areas of experimentation few dared to travel.
When the '80s rolled around and Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett had left, Genesis decided it was time to shed their past and move into the future. At that time, that consisted of synthesizers, electric drums and the like.
With a past the likes of what Genesis had, the brilliant, complex compositions and flowery lyrical tales, who was better suited to create catchy hooks that translate into top 40 hits? These guys had years of experience at this.
If Invisible Touch had been released by any pop-group du-jour, it probably would have been lauded as one of the greatest pop albums of all time. Since this particular album was released by a band called "Genesis" that had an extremely loyal and long time audience, many dismissed it as trash. The fact is, though, that all the incredible artistry that defined Genesis was in full play here. These guys are true masters of their art. Their art is music. Not progressive monster masterpieces, not pop prowess, but music, plain and simple. And Genesis is right up there with the best, regardless of the genre they are working within at the time.
In some other reviews, I saw some bashing Invisible Touch as selling out (recall the beer commercials?). You know what? If you had toiled under the labor of your record company contracts and been in the red for almost a decade like these guys were, would you want to capitalize on your new found fame and popularity almost 20 years after you started writing music? I bet you would. These guys deserve every deal they got. They worked their behinds off for it.
Free Music Review: Best in breed - and aging well!
Hit: 4 Stars
It's easy to kick Phil Collins around, Lord knows, making him out to be a sap-meister, or worse yet, a corporate shill. But "Invisible Touch" is the moment in between the end of Genesis as prog-rock pioneeers and the ascendancy of Collins as soft-rock staple (and all the baggage that brings) where Collins actually truly shines. Having listened to this album for the first time in nearly a decade, I am eerily surprised at how good this album still sounds. "Land of Confusion", which at time of release could be deemed a bit over-the-top, sounds far more relevant today than ever. The men of steel, the men of power, are losing control by the hour, indeed.
But the real highlight, apart from "Land of Confusion" and "Domino", is actually the balladeering, which - after this album for Collins - just becomes overly saccharine. There's some transcendent quality to both "In Too Deep" and "Throwing it All Away" that save them from the schlock factor of that horrific Tarzan song. When Collins sings "Who will light up the darkness/Who will hold your hand/Who will find you the answers/When you don't understand", it's done in a way that is simple and effective, and not the amp-the-hystrionics-up-to-level-11 way. And it's actually quite lovely, really.
Chalk it up to the playing power of Banks and Rutherford - and to the perfect amount of restraint. It succeeds quite amply, and for the AOR genre, this is clearly best-of-breed.
Free Music Review: Their strongest post Duke album
Hit: 3 Stars
This album continues where the last album left off. More electronic 80's synth pop, with catchy and easy to dance to songs. This was their most successful album commercially, in that five of the eight songs were rather big hits.
Listening to the album today, it does sound rather dated, as this brand of synth pop is not quite in style anymore. It's interesting how their older albums with Gabriel, actually sound less dated than this. Nevertheless, it's not a bad album. The title track is a bit irritating, and this album is not without its share of whiny sappy love ballads. But the ballads here are actually a bit better than the ones they had been doing before. The good does outweigh the bad on this album, securing it 3 stars.
Free Music Review: Genesis continues to go downhill
Hit: 3 Stars
Invisible Touch(1986) is probably one of the worst Genesis albums. The whole album is pop and there are no elements of prog-rock here at all. INVISIBLE TOUCH is an good example of this. TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT and LAND OF CONFUSION are better songs on this album that still offer some sort of rock elements. Genesis also tries out some lovesick ballads like IN TOO DEEP and THROWING IT ALL AWAY. Then there is the very catchy and fast ANYTHING SHE DOES and the powerful instrumental THE BRAZILIAN. DOMINO is the epic of the album and a very boring one. I wish they had the b-sides like DO THE NEAUROTIC, I'D RATHER BE YOU, and FEEDING THE FIRE. Those songs were great. Overall, half the songs are good and half are not, therefor, I'd give it two and a half stars.