Do you think CAS is the worst Genesis album?

    Very contentious opinion here.

    For me Trick and Wind haven't got one duff track. Every song fits in the overall picture over both albums including spookily the b sides.

    Calling All Stations is in a similar position for me.

    For me, yes, it's the worst, I too agree the songs seem to be half finished and none of them stand out for me. I think it was a case of the band coming to it's natural end. Nothing against Ray Wilson, who did a good job under the circumstances, but I do wish they'd gone with David Longdon in the end - though they probably didn't so they could get away from the Pete/Phil sound. (Interestingly, one of my mates, also a big Genesis fan, loves the album, mainly because it does sound so different to 'classic' Genesis). Second worse album, for me, is We Can't Dance. Personally, I've always enjoyed FGTR and appreciate it for what it is. :)

    I've always said CAS was underrated. I also strongly feel Ray Wilson (whose voice I loved) should've been given another go with a follow up album. Although nowhere near my favorite, CAS IMO is far from the worst. There are certainly IMO some songs on there that I don't enjoy. But there are also a few gems on there, that stand up against the band's whole catalog.


    Besides, "worst album" is such a subjective term anyway. Someone on here mentioned above that Genesis is one of their least favorite. Personally, Genesis-or, the Mama album as some call it-is probably my 3rd favorite! One person's trash is another person's treasure, after all.


    That said, FGTR is to me their worst album. Only cos they hadn't really defined themselves as songwriters and performers yet, and also cos the recording quality is so poor-it's difficult for me to enjoy sitting thru it. Those songs could've been released by almost any other band, and at times it sounded like they hadn't really honed their skill or even found their style yet. It basically sounded like a high school band recording in one of their moms' garage. There were foreshadowings in that album of what they would become, but IMO it wasn't till Trespass where they began to define what would become Genesis as we know them.

    If disliking a Genesis album equals not counting it as a "real" Genesis album then I'd vote for Invisible Touch as no real Genesis album as well. Oh, and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway too, by the way.

    Quote from Schrottrocker

    If disliking a Genesis album equals not counting it as a "real" Genesis album then I'd vote for Invisible Touch as no real Genesis album as well. Oh, and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway too, by the way.

    You're just being provocative, otherwise that's very likely the silliest post on this entire board to date.


    (On reflection, second silliest).

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1

    A side note: so far we have dedicated threads on the studio albums from FGTR through to The Lamb, plus ATTWT and CAS. Of all those, by far the most popular and actively discussed is CAS, to the extent it has two threads dedicated to it. The second most popular in terms of number of posts is FGTR. So the two albums most actively discussed are the first and last, generally the two which tend to be cited as the ones fans most dislike. Which I suppose makes sense.


    The least populated album threads are NC and Lamb, the first to feature the "classic" line-up and Gabriel's final Genesis album. That doesn't make much sense to me!

    Abandon all reason

    Quote from Backdrifter

    The least populated album threads are NC and Lamb, the first to feature the "classic" line-up and Gabriel's final Genesis album. That doesn't make much sense to me!

    It makes perfect sense to me. That's what Genesis fandom has been reduced to. A cultish clique of fat, balding, neurotic brand worshippers who'd happily lick Tony's backside clean and pay him their entire life's savings for the privilege desperately trying to convince anyone who'll listen that dismal releases like Calling All Stations and We Can't Dance wipe the floor with Sgt. Pepper, The Wall, A Night at the Opera, and Close to the Edge combined, while those of us with a modicum of good taste and a little common sense (but not quite enough to get the hell out of places like this) are ruthlessly attacked for daring to interrupt the perpetual circlejerk. Nearly all of the bright, thoughtful fans sincerely moved by the profound beauty and imagination of Supper's Ready and The Cinema Show have long since abandoned ship. Speaking of which...

    "If you think that it's pretentious, you've been taken for a ride."

    Like 1
    Quote from The Knife

    It makes perfect sense to me. That's what Genesis fandom has been reduced to. A cultish clique of fat, balding, neurotic brand worshippers who'd happily lick Tony's backside clean and pay him their entire life's savings for the privilege desperately trying to convince anyone who'll listen that dismal releases like Calling All Stations and We Can't Dance wipe the floor with Sgt. Pepper, The Wall, A Night at the Opera, and Close to the Edge combined, while those of us with a modicum of good taste and a little common sense (but not quite enough to get the hell out of places like this) are ruthlessly attacked for daring to interrupt the perpetual circlejerk. Nearly all of the bright, thoughtful fans sincerely moved by the profound beauty and imagination of Supper's Ready and The Cinema Show have long since abandoned ship. Speaking of which...

    Oh well, never mind.

    Abandon all reason

    Quote from foxfeeder

    But now, we are intrigued! Who? What?

    😄


    Well for a start it's not you in case you were wondering, not that you'd be too bothered if it were, I'm sure!


    However, for the sake of goodwill and to avoid reviving previous unpleasantnesses I'll refrain from giving any more detail.

    Abandon all reason

    No, I don’t think it is their worst.


    I heard Congo a couple of times when it came out, I think, and took an immediate dislike to it, not least the cringeworthy attempt at an arty, politically on-message video. Middle-aged men desperately trying to look cool doesn’t do it for me. On the back of that, I gave Calling All Stations one cursory listen, decided I didn’t like it and parked it for the best part of twenty years. I dusted it off a couple of years ago just out of curiosity and gave it a few spins. At first, only two or three standout tracks grabbed my attention, but then the whole album really started to grow on me. I gave it another good listen last night before writing this.


    Eleven tracks, 67 minutes of music — and for me no obvious fillers. Even the more run-of-the-mill efforts — Small Talk, If That’s What You Need, There Must Be Some Other Way — are listenable and certainly no weaker than the run of songs on side two of the Genesis (1983) album. Abacab runs for 47 minutes and includes two of Genesis’s very weakest songs, in my opinion — Who Dunnit? and Another Record. Much of Calling All Stations might be a bit unadventurous, but the whole thing sounds good, there are some great hooks and instrumental passages dotted around, and Ray can certainly sing.


    I have just bought Banks Vaults. A Curious Feeling apart, I am hearing Tony’s solo stuff for the first time. Much of it is great, some of it is outstanding. I can hear echoes, particularly of his work on Still and Strictly Inc, all through Calling All Stations. I am not very familiar with Mike and the Mechanics, but If That’s What You Need is what I imagine a typical Mechanics song sounds like.


    When Calling All Stations is good, it’s great — and, like on We Can’t Dance, it’s nice to see some longer songs that move away from the standard verse-chorus-bridge formula.


    The Dividing Line sounds like they got Phil back on drums, and the keyboard runs are terrific (reminding me of The Serpent Said). Shipwrecked has a great chorus. If you know Morrissey’s stuff at all, the main keyboard riff sounds like a fairly obscure track called Lost (released in the same year, I think).


    Alien Afternoon is the quirkiest song on the album. It quickly settles into a fairly unremarkable groove: a humdrum tune with humdrum lyrics about a humdrum existence. I am not always great at making sense of lyrics, but something seems to happen to our narrator mid-song — a paranormal experience or alien close encounter of some kind. Ghostly voices ring out like an angelic choir — “We are home / We are your home / We are all your home” — with suitably unsettling and other-worldly mood music from Tony and Mike. Great stuff.


    Again, it very much reminds me of another song — probably my favourite Simon and Garfunkel song, The Only Living Boy In New York. Paul is fed up, stuck at home writing songs for the new album while Art is away in Mexico pursuing a film career. Then we hear Art’s heavily treated vocal calling from the ether — “Here I am” — as if he’s hearing Paul from afar.


    One Man’s Fool was the first song to catch my attention. The lyrics — written pre-9/11, of course — resonate more than ever. The song shifts gear after about four minutes and closes the album in style.


    I often find myself drawn to the darker Genesis lyrics dealing with pain, loss and loneliness. Not About Us sounds like classic Mike writing. It puts me in mind of Snowbound, a favourite of mine from And Then There Were Three. Along the same lines, Uncertain Weather is probably the best song on the album, though that’s perhaps partly because I always think of the loss of my parents when I hear it. The lines “All gone long ago / Leaving no trace / Disappearing like smoke in the wind” are goosebumps-good. Unfortunately, the spell is broken by those bloody awful spoken lines.


    My overall verdict? I should start by mentioning that I think of Trespass as the first album. It’s obviously nowhere near as good as anything from the ‘70s; it’s not as good as Duke; it’s better than Abacab and Genesis; and it’s probably on a par with Invisible Touch and We Can’t Dance.

    Not sure about these "what's the best / worst album" questions.


    If you forced everybody to make a list - best to worst - it still doesn't say #15 on the list is a bad album. I can find great moments on every album. Duke and Selling may be my favorites and for me more valuable than FGTR and CAS, but I still do like listening to those as well.


    FGTR was a very naive album and has little to do with what was to come. So it may qualify to be their "worst"

    The first time I heard FGTR I loved it. Maybe because I'm an Ant fan. Listen to progression of the "demo album", FGTR to songs like Provocation, in just a few short year gets my mind wandering. Those Jackson Tape songs go so deep into the PG era catalog. I just picture snot nose kids getting screwed at a young age and finally prevailing.



    CAS, I might have listened to it maybe 3 times all the way through and that was tough. I can't even say it is bad or good, I just don't like it. The cover is great though.



    Duke is the best album overall, and The Musical Box is Genesis best song. (2 cents)