Platinum Collection (2004)
Disc 1
1.No Son of Mine
2.I Can't Dance
3.Jesus He Knows Me
4.Hold On My Heart
5.Invisible Touch
6.Throwing It All Away
7.Tonight Tonight Tonight (Edit)
8.Land of Confusion
9.In Too Deep
10.Mama
11.That's All
12.Home By the Sea
13.Second Home By the Sea
14.Illegal Alien
15.Paperlate
16.Calling All Stations
Disc 2
1.Abacab
2.Keep it Dark
3.Turn it On Again
4.Behind the Lines
5.Duchess
6.Misunderstanding
7.Many Too Many
8.Follow You, Follow Me
9.In That Quiet Earth
10.Afterglow
11.Your Own Special Way
12.A Trick of the Tail
13.Ripples
14.Los Endos
Disc 3
1.The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
2.Counting out the Time
3.The Carpet Crawlers
4.Firth of Fifth
5.The Cinema Show
6.I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
7.Supper's Ready
8.The Musical Box
9.The Knife
 
At last, a latter day compilation CD
that makes sense! The history of Genesis, although brilliant has been
extremely uneven. Nowhere was this more apparent than on their first
greatest hits compilation Turn it On Again:
The Hits. Their early stuff just sounded too different from the
latter day material, and even the middle material. Plus there was the
fact that this band really didn't really have any hits until the early
eighties. Of course, they had so much material that was loved by
so many people, that it made sense to put out a compilation that was a
little bit more favorable to the band's long eclectic history.
They manage to do just that here. It even makes more sense to make
this a "box set" (which in theory you could argue that it is since it's
3 discs) since they do have a wealth of great material. Unlike a lot of
box sets, this one is strictly regulated to material that has been
released before - there are no "new things" or "hidden gems" (they
covered that exhaustively with their two Archive releases in the late
1990's). Like all "hit" compilations, it's easy to nitpick and scratch
your head when looking at what was left off vs. what is actually on the
release. You can do the same here (for example, there's no No Reply
at All but they do include Keep it Dark, or, the edited
Tonight Tonight Tonight is featured, yet they include the full
length Abacab). However, when looking at each disc, the band
decided that they would "maximize" the listening pleasure by cramming as
much material on each disc as possible. None of the 3 discs are less
than 76 minutes in the length. Yes, it would have been nice to have
Watcher of the Skies from the early days, but there simply wasn't
enough room. It would have been nice to have a live version (or any
version) of In the Cage, but that would have required a 4th
disc.
The only complaint with this release is the sequencing. It
makes sense for a band like Genesis to release a compilation with the
song titles in order, since the band evolved so much in its history.
Yet for some strange reason, it's done backwards. We start with
No Son of Mine and go backwards all the way to the early 1970's The
Knife. Why was this so? Wouldn't it have been better to start at
the beginning and end at the end? Maybe it was because the latter
material was so "hit" infested? It's also curious that the latest song
on here (Calling All Stations) is the only song that violates the
rule. It's actually the last song on the first disc - as if the band
were trying to hide or bury it. Not really a bad idea. A great way to
introduce the casual fan to the wide variety of music this band has (or
had) to offer.
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