In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And then God said, "Let there be light"...and there was light. And then God said, "Let there be music reviews"...so he created Christopher Thelen. God looked at what he created and said, "Oh no..." [Chris's note: Very funny, Tom... you're fired...]
Most people would recognize this "slightly altered" passage from the first book of the Bible, Genesis. And that is where we begin our musical journey today... Genesis's 1986 release Invisible Touch.
This album takes Genesis all over the musical spectrum, starting
with bubblegum pop songs like the title cut. From the start, this
song was destined to top the charts. I can remember where I was
when "Invisible Touch" went to number one. I was stuck in a traffic
jam on Interstate 65 in northern Indiana. The number two song that
week was held by the former lead singer of Genesis -- Peter Gabriel
singing "Sledgehammer."
Songs like "Invisible Touch," "In Too Deep" and "Throwing It All Away" lend themselves to adult contemporary music. You will still find them in heavy rotation at radio stations across the country.
The interesting thing about the song "Invisible Touch" is the video. Once again Phil Collins has made a video about making a video. This seems to be a recurring theme. Let's see......"Invisible Touch," "Easy Lover" (with Philip Bailey) , "I Can't Dance," "Don't Lose That Number".....I know there are more, but why go on?
"Anything She Does" is a high paced, high tempo song that leaves the listener gasping for breath at the end. Anyone attempting to air-drum will be completely exhausted by the end. There is an interesting two-part song on the album called "Domino." This song changes gears faster and more often than a NASCAR driver on a road course. Drivers, beware!
Now, let's talk about beer. Many years ago a beer company who will remain nameless used the second cut, entitled "Tonight Tonight Tonight," for a commercial. It never has and never will influence me to buy beer... especially the river water they pass off as beer. But everyone still associates the song with the commercial, so I guess the ad executives did their job well. I must also mention the number of times the word "tonight" is spoken in the song. I counted 51 times! (Yes, I have that much free time on my hands) After the ass-ripping review that Chris gave to an Iron Maiden song that repeated the same lyric over and over, I thought this fact might be worth bringing up.
Entering "Land Of Confusion": This is probably the best song on the album. Finally, Collins gives us some serious drum work and not something off a preprogrammed drum machine. Good guitar work from Mike Rutherford adds to this fine piece of work. If you haven't seen the video for this one, check it out. It is in the rotation for "Pop Up Video" on VH-1.
Wrapping up the album is an excellent instrumental, "The Brazilian." Tony Banks's keyboard work is perfect and the song will always stick in my head. This track has reared its head in countless TV shows during the '80s; I won't name them because I don't want to admit I watched the shows.....
In a nutshell.... Serious rockers, avoid this like the plague, what you want is not here. Easy listening or adult contempory -- watch for speed bumps and holes in the road. Mainstream -- jump in, the water's great. Not the best work from Genesis, but good enough to line their pockets with unholy gobs of cash.