This is the POLL We Live In: Genesis - Invisible Touch

Defend the Indefensible: Genesis' "Invisible Touch"

The album cover completely mystified me until recently, but one of my possible interpretations of the image within the square was a penis head with cartoon eyes drawn on it with the shadow of a broken gun.

Fantastic post, Tim.

Wow. That's the best and most otm post on all ilx.

I read that before because it sent me on a Spotify question for this:

the gentle but widescreen mysticism of the extended mix of the Commodores' "Night Shift".

And agree, great post.

er, quest, not question

re: Tim's post and "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", isn't that song specifically about an addict? Which makes its use in this Michelob commercial even more twisted/wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV9u0zv3g9k

also I should not have started playing this album because I now am second-guessing my vote

both TTT and LoC are fucking monstrous

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Whoah, shocker.

yeah didn't really see that coming

It has a built-in ability!

The Brazilian over In Too Deep! Wow.

As it should be!

"Domino" driving down a deserted Turnpike on an early Sunday afternoon.

If I'd been around for this poll, I'd have voted for "The Brazilian", but it really is a fantastic, underrated album as a whole.

bald Thriller, y'all

― Barack 2 Chainz Obama (some dude), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 10:21 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

used to love The Brazilian. am i mis-remembering or was it used in When The Wind Blows?

Yeah, that's right; think it was playing on their radio or something.

Looked at results, said to myself, "I hope I was the one person who voted for The Brazilian," don't think I was, though

"fuck, this album is the bald thriller" never fails

My guitar teacher and I were going through the solo for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," and we came to conclusion that not only is Tears For Fears one of the few acts clearly influenced by '80s Genesis, but the guitar solo may be the only influence of something non-Genesis played in a "Mike Rutherford style."

Mike Rutherford: another candidate for least hard working man in in rock. Phil and Tony doin' the heavy lifting here.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World always sounded like an upbeat version of Albatross to me.

Albatross a la '80s Genesis.

well, there's two solos in EWTRTW, one of which is played by Orzabal.

What degree of overlap was there between fans of Genesis and fans of Phil's solo work? Did the latter buy Invisible Touch or were they generally two separate camps? What I'm trying to ask is, did Collins' solo popularity boost Genesis' sales or was it "hey, this song by this Genesis group on the radio is pretty good!"

each Genesis album going back to Gabriel's tenure outsold its predecessor, but, yeah, I don't doubt Invisible Touch sold a few million coming a year after No Jacket Required.

Worth remembering that Collins in various contexts was pretty ubiquitous from 1980 to 1987 or so. It was a constant momentum, because he was never gone. Genesis was already playing arenas in the late '70s, I think, and that's before they had any real hits. And then came the vari-lites.

being a former prog-Genesis fan when this came out were some hard shoes to walk in, I know y'all on this thread are fans of the record and that's cool but on the reactionary prog side it was like "fuck...was the suck always there or did they just start sucking any follow the suck train to moneyland?" I was already off prog by then so it was at some degree of remove but it was still "wow that band I used to love is terrible now"

I seem to recall the Xgau review noting how it best makes use of Banks' synths, more so than the self-titled, which is a much weaker record than this one. This is the album where they go pop, but confidently so, and as I'm wont to invoke when defending '80s Genesis, the group had without question paid its dues and was already massively successful, so it's hard to come down on this album as a shameless sell-out move. They'd been moving in this direction for years, and it should have surprised no one.

I'd like to recount my funny observation of seeing the group's 2007 reunion tour, that all the women seemed to leave for the beer line when the set turned prog, and all the guys seemed to leave when it went pop. But by and large, most people stayed. I've always been impressed, from live records and seeing the group live, how well the band balanced its epics with its pop stuff, sometimes breaking the epics down to their poppiest bits and then playing them as medleys. In 2007 they played proto ballads like "Ripples" and "Afterglow," which had no problem fitting in with "Hold On My Heart."

What degree of overlap was there between fans of Genesis and fans of Phil's solo work? Did the latter buy Invisible Touch or were they generally two separate camps?

In 1983 I was a big fan of Collins-era Genesis (basically Duke through and including IT but especially Abacab) but did not care about a) Gabriel-led Genesis or b) Collins solo. I mean, I probably liked both more than I disliked them but not enough to own any records by either.

the self-titled, which is a much weaker record than this one.

Utter wrongness, the s/t is their great pop record!

Geir, is that you?

First side has "Mama" and "Home By the Sea," which are great, but also "That's All," which is pretty crap, imo. Second side has "Taking It All Too Hard," which is an underrated ballad, but also "Illegal Alien" and "Just a Job to Do," both of which kind of suck. "Silver Rainbow" is an odd deep cut, but it's no "Brazilian."

"That's All," which is pretty crap

BRAIN ASPLODES

by and large, most people stayed.

one-line review of Genesis concert in need of no further clarification

Xpost no idea why, but at least two stations locally have put that song back in heavy circulation. I hear it on the radio several times week, and it's starting to drive me crazy.

I like "Taking It All Too Hard" too, and for years I thought it was a Collins ballad.

"just a job to do" kicks

no excuse for "illegal alien" though

when i was a kid i think i used to confuse genesis ballads for phil solo stuff all the time but now they're really distinguished for me by the playing on them

Phil always hired much better musicians for his solo albums.

My local AOR station played "Home By the Sea" all the time.

Trying to think of any other musicians who maintained a highly successful solo career while still being part of a similarly successful band, and drawing a blank. Is Phil the only one?

In miniature, Gwen Stefani had a pretty successful solo outing at the time. Not sure this is a great or relevant example, though. There are other, better ones I'm not thinking of.

Stevie Nicks, too.

fuck, this album is the bald Thriller
― Barack 2 Chainz Obama (some dude), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 3:33 AM (20 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this might be my favorite thing ever written on ILM
Serious thank yous

― Walter Galt, Wednesday, July 18, 2012 11:52 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

never read this thread before, and yes this is so otm

and re: arctic mindbath's question, my dad loved phil's solo stuff, suckered in there by the supremes cover and sticking around for face value thru but seriously. invisible touch was the only genesis album he bought, and when i started to explore the genesis back catalogue as a pre-teen he was very much "woah! there be prog monsters! you won't like it!" which turned out to not be true, but there you go.

xxpost Bryan Ferry

Only foreign city sirens can cut through,
Nylon sheets and blankets help to minimize the cold.
But they can't keep out the chilling sounds.
Will the nightmare soon give way to dreaming
That she is here with me?

"in too deep" was robbed

is this the most recently revived genesis thread? can't be. I'm either wrong or time flies much too fast.

anyway, is there any other instance of a rock n roll band losing the lead singer, and the drummer steps up to the plate? in such spectacular fashion?

can we all just have a moment to think about phil collins?