Genesis Invisible Touch, what is the weakest track here?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Eleventh Earl of Mar, Jan 21, 2018.

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  1. gojikranz

    gojikranz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento
    instinctually voted for in to deep but seeing the anything she does calls decided to listen to them. they do form a block of suck right in the middle of the album but I think I still vote for in to deep cause its just so bland and slow(only to be bested by my all time least favorite genesis track hold on my heart). at least anything she does zips along.
     
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  2. skisdlimit

    skisdlimit Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bellevue, WA
    "Invisible Touch" - IMHO, this title track has an annoying synth line that sticks in your head (not quite as bad as McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" or Europe's "The Final Countdown" but getting there), and being the lead-off song makes a not-so-great first impression, which is a similar problem I have with Michael Jackson's "Bad." :thumbsdow

    I don't really remember "Anything She Does" (which appears to be "winning" this poll) but vaguely recall the video with Benny Hill, so I can give Genesis some points for that, and their creepy puppet video for "Land of Confusion" (that one formed my lasting impression of then President Reagan :laugh:). I agree with other comments that some of the songs here sound an awful lot like solo Phil Collins (i.e. "In Too Deep," "Throwing It All Away," etc.), but am a bit surprised at all the votes for "The Brazilian" (I'd say this ends the album on a high note despite its being an instrumental), which perhaps given a relative lack of radio overplay, it along with "Domino" are probably now my favorite tracks.

    Interestingly enough, I haven't actually played Invisible Touch in its entirety for a long time, and usually reach for A Trick of the Tail/Wind and Wuthering-era Genesis when I have a hankering to listen to this band. Still, I've never seen fit to unload it, so it probably merits a revisit, and perhaps an overall reassessment.

    And then again, maybe not....:shh:
     
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  3. The Bishop

    The Bishop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dorset, England.
    I really like Invisible Touch and I’m a big Genesis fan.

    Weakest track though: Anything She Does.
     
  4. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    I really enjoy the b-side "I'd Rather Be You." Better than anything on Side 1 imo.
     
  5. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    I love pop music. I think Genesis did it very well in the early 80's, even though their work in the first half of the 70's is 10 x better. The problem I have with "Invisible Tough" is that it's bad pop music. All those fake drums and cheesy sounds and the dated attempt at being current all leave me cold. "That's All" is an example of Genesis doing pop well.
     
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  6. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    "Throwing It All Away" is actually the "Mike ballad" of the album.... the three-man albums usually had a slow song that was built around a riff of Mike's and for which he wrote the lyrics -- "Follow You Follow Me," "Taking It All Too Hard," "Never A Time," and his solo compositions "Like It Or Not" and "Alone Tonight." (Plus their progenitor on Wind and Wuthering, "Your Own Special Way.")
     
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  7. bcaulf

    bcaulf Forum Resident

    Anything Does is my least favorite, but it’s still not bad. I probably would’ve voted for the title track if it weren’t such a catchy great pop single.

    I wish Feeding The Fire was on the album. That’s a cool track.
     
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  8. Eleventh Earl of Mar

    Eleventh Earl of Mar Somehow got them all this far. Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    I'd argue That's All was the first step towards them getting boring - great song, but, the style could of easily just showed up on any record a decade prior, whereas the very next song Home by the Sea had them sounding pop but still relevant and distinctive. Mama is another good, forward thinking pop song. This record is the first where new technology effectively loses song sensibility, though We Can't Dance takes that and made it much worse, since Tony couldn't realize when to quit adding new synths to his rig and Mike got comfortable being in a boring straight rock group. How it feels to me anyway.
     
  9. onionmaster

    onionmaster Tropical new waver from the future

    I love this album, but I constantly forget Anything She Does exists what with it being so derivative of Paperlate, No Reply At All, Sussidio etc.
     
  10. Frosst

    Frosst Vinyl-obsessive kiddo

    Location:
    Sweden
    I'm in the "hate it"-camp. I remember Invisible Touch being played regularly on classic radio, I didn't mind it then. However I listened to it on Spotify not long ago and was dissapointed at how bad the song actually is. Either I had completely misrembered it as it being great when it was played on the radio or it was never great to begin with. I didn't choose Invisible Touch in this poll though as I believe there are other songs on the album that's worse. The album overall stinks.
     
  11. Thermionic Dude

    Thermionic Dude Forum Resident

    To answer the question, I'd say Anything She Does.

    However, I also must say I think 80s Genesis, and this album in particular, are unfairly criticized. I think it is a huge mistake to hold Pop Genesis to the same musical standards as Gabriel/Hackett Genesis. On a practical level, they are really two different bands performing two different kinds of music. Sure there are a few hints of the Prog era in some of the Pop albums, but they are still Pop albums through and through. In my mind, the experience they gained playing the esoteric stuff in the 70s gave them a level of musical sophistication that put them ahead of most other Pop bands of the time, and resulted in some great (not Prog, but that's OK!) albums. If "Invisible Touch" had been recorded by Scritti Politti, Men Without Hats, or the Thompson Twins instead of Genesis, it would probably be held to fairer standards and much less maligned by music nerd types.:)
     
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  12. wildstar

    wildstar Senior Member

    Location:
    ontario, canada
    Well - yes and no. It was played - or rather the video was played on the big screen above the stage immediately before the concert started. The end of the video showed the band (well the three full-time members) walking toward the stage to the sound of a crowd and immediately after the video ended they were actually walking onto the stage to start the concert.

    So not every song from the IT album was played live, but every song was represented in the show:

     
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  13. Derek Slazenger

    Derek Slazenger Specs, rugs & rock n roll

    Let's just be thankful that they never looked like tools in any of their videos.
     
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  14. wildstar

    wildstar Senior Member

    Location:
    ontario, canada
    I was going to suggest that Domino should have its two parts listed separately as it really is just two separate songs crossfaded, plus each of the two songs were released separately as the B-Sides to two of the 7" singles released from the album, but then I thought - "Why bother about how its listed - together or separately - either way its not like anyone's actually gonna vote for it/them in this poll anyway"

    Wow - it got three votes so far as of this post! Crazy - I wonder how they would have done if listed separately.
     
  15. wildstar

    wildstar Senior Member

    Location:
    ontario, canada
    Tony Banks has said that 'Land Of Confusion' is without question their best ever music video, in large part down to the fact that the band isn't in it!
     
  16. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    A few of them haven't aged well, but I actually think they fared pretty well in the music video era, as far as not having any that are exceptionally embarrassing. Phil could act, so they got away with stuff like "I Can't Dance" and "Jesus He Knows Me," but they rarely overreached in their music videos, or asked much out of Tony and Mike. Given how over the top so many 80's videos were, and how awkwardly some 60's/70's acts tried to fit in with MTV, I think Genesis maneuvered the whole decade quite well visually.
     
  17. Eleventh Earl of Mar

    Eleventh Earl of Mar Somehow got them all this far. Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    Yeah, I think the same way - Abacab is a good album if you listen knowing this is a band trying to keep up with music and doing it successfully, not putting out material that fits them because... that's boring as a musician.
     
  18. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    I'd second this. Honestly, what I appreciate about '80s Genesis is that the tricks they learned being overly complex and "muso" allowed them to Trojan Horse a lot of complex and weird musical ideas into songs that sound way simpler than they are. Complex rhythms, weird chord changes, etc. were all present in their later music, but it was far less, "HEY! I'm Mr. Meeseeks! Look at me!" (sorry, been watching too much Rick & Morty). I rather appreciate that and there are some damn catchy songs that we got out of it as well.
     
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  19. pantofis

    pantofis Senior Member

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    I wanted to vote for „Almost Like Love“, but that‘s another album, even another band. I just hate fake horns, especially in uptempo songs. The only notable thing about Anything She Does is a borrowed melody line from Eight Days A Week.
     
  20. ti-triodes

    ti-triodes Senior Member

    Location:
    Paz Chin-in
    In Too Deep. It belongs on one of Phil's solo albums.
     
  21. cungar

    cungar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Torrance, CA
    I remember listening to this album and trying so hard to find anything that reminded me why I loved Genesis up to that point. To this day, I never found it.
     
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