Genesis -
Invisible Touch
1986, Atlantic
1. Invisible Touch
2. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
3. Land of Confusion
4. In Too Deep
5. Anything She Does
6. Domino
7. Throwing It All Away
8. The Brazilian
“Land of Confusion.”
Yeah.
That’s pretty much the best way to start this write up. That song was
my first real exposure to Genesis. I’d heard songs from them here and there but
never knew it was Genesis until much later. MTV was in full swing and I was
just conscious enough to be aware of what was on television. The video for that
song was surreal, creepy, and frightening. It was awesome. The song itself is
excellent too, mixing a great hook with a sense of urgency that perfectly
matches the mood of the lyrics. It’s one of those times when the video and the
song went together like chocolate and peanut butter. The video still holds up
today in terms of quality, though most people wouldn’t recognize most of the
puppets.
It should go without saying that at the time Invisible Touch was released, the band was on top of the world.
They were doing world tours and selling out stadiums. They were in constant
rotation on MTV. Oh, did I not mention they had a slew of videos from this
album? They did. This is the most popular they would ever be. For the most
part, all the progressive snobs that loved the Gabriel era of the band had
given up on Genesis, thinking they’d just made lazy music for the masses.
That’s a shame, because Invisible
Touch is a dang fine pop album. I love it when progressive musicians do pop
albums. Like when Devin Townsend did his prog/pop/rock masterpieces, Addicted
and Epicloud. There is a stark
contrast between pop music made by amazing musicians and pop music made by one
trollop and five “producers.” This particular album was written by three men –
Phill Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks. That’s it. They are extremely
talented musicians and it shows, even when they are not writing ten-minute
songs about aliens or whatever.
Though there is a ten minute song on here, “Domino”. Yeah, I guess the
guys can’t totally exorcise their progressive past. Aside from the eight minute
“Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” the rest of the songs stick within the radio
friendly three to four minute range. They are mostly all great, catchy pop
songs. The album does sound a bit dated, but it was the Eighties after all.
There is just one little problem…
“I know I love ya but I’m in too deep…”
Now this isn’t a terrible song, but it is definitely the most boring.
Ballads don’t have to be boring but it feels as though the band looked at their
seven amazing songs and realized they didn’t have a ballad, so they crapped out
“In Too Deep” in an afternoon. When you hear someone go on and on about how far
Genesis fell, they usually cite this track as exhibit A. While the band was no
stranger to sappy balladry, “In Too Deep,” marks the start of a problem the
band will have with its next album, We
Can’t Dance. We’ll get into that in a few months.
However, as it stands – one mediocre ballad aside – Invisible Touch is an excellent album.
It’s a time capsule of sorts and quite rewarding for those who are willing to
forgive it’s complete Eighties-ness. It’s not trying to be a progressive rock
album, it’s trying to be a pop album. I’m happy to say it succeeds brilliantly.
Don’t be a hater, good tunes is good tunes.
Final Score: 4.5
Useless Fact: Tony Banks admitted in interviews for the reissue of this
album that writing a three minute pop song was a lot harder for him than
something progressive. He says everything in the pop song has to be right
immediately and there’s no room to breathe.
