We Can't Dance (1991)
1.No Son of Mine
2.Jesus He Knows Me
3.Driving the Last Spike
4.I Can't Dance
5.Never A Time
6.Dreaming While You Sleep
7.Tell Me Why
8.Living Forever
9.Hold On My Heart
10.Way of the World
11.Since I Lost You
12.Fading Lights
With more and more solo projects and
outside activities amongst the members, the band took an unprecedented
five years between their last album and this release. What finally
emerged is quite possibly the best thing this band (in any lineup form)
has ever done. Quick history: Five years prior in 1986, the majority of
the record buying public had not discovered compact discs yet and
recordings were tailored to the time restrictions of vinyl. In 1991,
albums were gone for good and cassettes were starting to slowly
die as well. The band chose to release over seventy minutes of
music (almost the limit) on this release and gave the consumer more than
they ever hoped. All of this, of course, would be
irrelevant if the material were subpar with "fillers" throughout. There
are happily none - or at least very few.
Whether it was intended or not, what did emerge on this disc was an
attempt to please two kinds of fans. The "pop" kids, mostly new
to the band's audience have a great deal of material to enjoy and the
older, more artsy crowd got a lot to enjoy from this package as well - something that
had been missing on the last couple of releases. To date, this package
has sold in excess of three million copies - a little bit of a let down since their
last album, Invisible Touch, sold five million. Perhaps it was the less saturation of airplay
that makes this one a better deal.
The first song and first single No Son of Mine is one of the
strongest tracks featured. It's a nice mixture of older songs Abacab and
Mama with an unusually serious lyrical message for the socially
conscious. The second single I Can't Dance is a classic as
well. It has a nice bluesy guitar riff throughout sythesized pops and
comical lyrics poking fun at blue jean commercials. Other singles
Jesus He Knows Me and Never A Time sound a little too
much like past hits but that was probably intentional. Hold on My
Heart wins the "It Sounds The Most Like A Phil Collins Solo Song" award but it's
a beautiful piece, so who cares?
Then we have some of the less friendly radio songs that do equally as
well. One of the finest is Driving the Last Spike about the
dangers of working in the nineteenth century railways. Ten minutes has
never gone by so quickly. Dreaming While You Sleep is another
fun listen that also lets Collins remind us he's still a great drummer.
Living Forever is another one of those songs that creeps into
your head every now and then. It starts off as a nice single
wannabe, and then turns into a cool jam-like session. It's probably one of the
most underrated songs on the disc. Since I Lost You is a song
that many would argue could be a single. It's another beautiful
piece that sounds like it was written about a broken romance. It was
actually written for Eric Clapton after he tragically lost his young
son. The band saves the best for last with Fading Lights
another ten minute plus epic that has elements of older songs such as Duke's Travels and
Afterglow. You just have to hear it. Although no one knew it
at the time, this album would be Collins' last studio record as a member of Genesis.
This last song on his last album was a beautiful exit.
If you had to pick a bone with this album it would be Tell Me
Why. It's one of those "the world is so messed up an no one seems
to care" songs. Way of the World is a little similar in
lyrical structure but it's great music gives it a passing grade. A
minor infraction. A great ending to yet another era in the career of
Genesis.
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