Your favorite GENESIS studio albums (pick three)

  • I decided to pop back in and I'm kinda surprised my picks haven't changed. Selling England by the Pound, Duke, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.


    When I first posted a year and a half ago I mentioned that A Trick of the Tail might be my number 3 on a different day, but I'm still keeping The Lamb right where it is. I've been listening to The Lamb a lot recently, and I'm always amazed by how incredible that album is.

  • Hmmm...interesting stuff. I voted on this as my first contribution to the forum. My three were Selling England, Trick Of The Tail, Wind and Wuthering. And they were the top three when I saw the votes when the results appeared. I would have taken The Lamb as well, but couldn't shoehorn it in. As a 70s music era man, my choices were always going to be from the albums up to Wind & Wuthering.

  • I created this topic to chat about your favorite Genesis albums.


    My personal favorite is Invisible Touch, an album with a very recognizable sound that combines the high tech sound of Steinberger guitars and electronic drums with the tradition of progressive rock. This album shows that in 1986 Genesis is still able to produce structured songs with complex progressions and arrangements (Domino, The Brazilian, Tonight tonight tonight are in my opinion rare nuggets of "80s prog-rock", a current of rock little recognized) while arriving at composing easy-to-remember melodies to which we immediately adhere (invisible touch is just great, the best pop-rock song of all time for me, Land Of Confusion melodically reminds me of the Gabriel period but also sounds very high tech with Rutherford's solo in the middle of the song, even better at Wembley 87. This album is one of those where Phil Collins' skills are most highlighted: He can go in the highs of a natural voice and to present an almost Gabrielian soft song (the magnificent In Too Deep) or sing with a hard pop voice, tailored for MTV (Land Of Confusion, Everything She Does).


    Tony Banks contributed enormously to this album which demonstrates well the faculties of this virtuoso to adopt new very modern keyboards for the time (I am not a specialist in synths but I am fascinated when I see at Wembley all these high keyboards technology that can invent the ambiance of a song on their own, in the first part of Domino Banks gives us the illusion of being in a spaceship or in an outer space like in James Bond Moonraker), while sometimes playing in a very classic way (In Too Deep's piano is 100% Banks of the 70s). As already said previously, Rutherford makes us discover on this discs new instruments such as the 6-string steinberger guitar equipped with vibrato, custom-made for Rutherford, with which he can play lots of different sounds thanks to a synthetic amplifier, at Wembley he plays all the new songs on this same guitar which emits multiple voices depending on the songs, moods, passages).


    Phil's talent for playing and mastering electronic drums is highlighted in The Brazilian, an instrumental with crazy originality whose energy and the combination of different instruments increase in intensity throughout the piece, this piece with 'fabric of a Los Endos or a Wot Gorilla with an appet of new technologies at the service of prog musical creation.


    In summary, in this album, I really appreciate the promotion of new instruments and sounds from the 1980s while keeping Genesis' own identity in terms of melodies and song. For me Invisible Touch is a real progressive rock album which expresses itself in the high tech language of guitars, keyboards and percussion of the 1980s, not a simple pop-rock album as some extreme Gabriel era fans say on youtube. which presents inventive, audacious, creative and high quality music. I can't say which is my favorite song from this album because I think everything is excellent on it, there is no filling, each song brings something: The tubes, the songs with flamboyant melodies to sing on stage with the group, listen with friends while singing with or to cover with our own group (Invisible Touch, Land Of Confusion, Everything She Does, Throwing It all Away), a romantic ballad à la Collins worthy of his solo albums, supplemented by a golden accompaniment by Genesis (In Too Deep) and 3 nuggets of "80's prog-rock highlighting all the artistic and creative capacities that we love in Genesis (Domino, Tonight Tonight Tonight, The Brazilian).

  • I picked in this order


    we cant dance

    Invisible touch

    The lamb....


    dance was the first one i ever bought.
    land of confusion was the first song i ever herd by them that i am aware of. it came out when i was a kid and without any of those i never would of listened to the lamb

  • oh, the Mama-album doesn't have many many fans here. I wonder why, it's a good album!!

    There seems to be a consensus that one side of the album is flawless (although there were still be some who say they don't like That's All) while side two is a somewhat lesser collection of tunes, and no-one can agree on which tunes on side two are good and bad!

  • I am very surprised at how close wind and wuthering is to the top spot.

    I'm not. I don't like it very much but given the preferences members tend to express here, I find it unsurprising W&W is so highly ranked - if I'm surprised about anything it's that it isn't higher.

    Abandon all reason

  • I'm not. I don't like it very much but given the preferences members tend to express here, I find it unsurprising W&W is so highly ranked - if I'm surprised about anything it's that it isn't higher.

    I would agree it is a bit of a surprise, W&W does generally rank high but I don't remember ever seeing it taking third place and like many here, I've seen my share of polls and forums. Some things are constant, like either Trick or SEBTP there at the top which is about right in my book. Generally speaking I'm fine with the results and even if I weren't, the people have spoken. I think Foxtrot and NC could have done better but I must say, it pains me a bit to see Trespass ranking after IT.

  • I'm not. I don't like it very much but given the preferences members tend to express here, I find it unsurprising W&W is so highly ranked - if I'm surprised about anything it's that it isn't higher.

    I see your point about the member preferences - strong selection bias at play, but despite this, I thought w&w would struggle to be above duke, foxtrot etc. I always got the impression it was strongly liked but not loved. On various boards and forums (fora?) over the years, I've never got the sense it would be second behind joint first SEBTP/TOTT.


    Fwiw I liked it more when I heard it first. I still love the strong tracks but have less time for the weaker ones now.