Live: The Way We Walk Volume 2 - The Longs
Atlantic, 1993
REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/27/2005
Oh joy, another Genesis live album. This one captures the band's final three albums with Phil Collins, which were the band's three weakest albums, coincidentally. The first disc in this set brought the listener up to date on live renditions of Genesis pop hits from 1983 forward, stuff like "Invisible Touch" and "I Can't Dance." This CD captures the longer songs from the We Can't Dance tour, with the intent that this disc will appeal to fans of older progressive Genesis.
Not so much.
The problem is, the longer songs from 1983 forward are nowhere near the quality of the Peter Gabriel-era music. It's good to hear the band stretching the boundaries of pop with tracks like "Fading Lights" and "Domino," mostly because it shows Collins could write good lyrics when he wanted to. But instead of breaking new ground, the songs are just simple pop themes stretched out to longer lengths.
Collins gets to have fun with "Drum Duet," which is just that stretched out to six minutes, which gets old. He also turns in the strongest song on the disc, a "Home By the Sea/Second Home by the Sea" combination that is more passionate and better played than the album version. "Driving the Last Spike" almost recaptures the old Genesis trick of telling a story set to music, and the end result is entertaining at best.
However, the abomination of "Old Medley" could have made me cry. The band takes old songs and chops them up, playing bits and pieces of each one, but not really putting their heart into it. We hear parts of "Dance On A Volcano," "Firth Of Fifth," "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," the closing section of "The Musical Box" and "I Know What I Like," then a mention of "Illegal Alien" and "Follow You Follow Me." It almost seems as if the guys played the songs just to get them out of the way so they could get on with important musical statements like "Land Of Confusion." Plus, Collins performed those first six songs on Seconds Out back before he went solo, so these versions add nothing.
The only people interested in this CD will be collectors and big fans of later-era Genesis, who will skip the "Medley" and enjoy the last five songs. For anyone else, except for "Home/Second Home By the Sea," don't bother.