I have to admit that by the time Genesis released Invisible Touch my interest in their current material was pretty low. Between the release of Genesis and Invisible Touch I had graduated from college and got my first proper full time job. My musical taste had moved on considerably from where it had been 1983 and of course Genesis by 1986 were competing with the most popular bands in the World, so it was difficult to retain any objectivity when it came to how the band made me feel. I just knew I wasn’t really a fan of their new stuff and with plenty of great music coming out by my then current favourites, it was not an issue to me that they had moved on. Phil was certainly very visible to the point of me being somewhat turned off him as a solo artist (although I bought and rather enjoyed No Jacket Required). I recall them being featured on Whistle Test filmed in their studio showing how they were currently putting their material together. I cared enough to watch this feature but it didn’t make me feel like I should rush out and buy the album on its release. I imagine the release of the title track as an advance single didn’t put the album in too great a spotlight either for me but again I just don’t think I was interested enough to bother exploring it. Compare this with how I felt towards Paul Simon’s Graceland. As a long term fan of Simon’s work both with and without Garfunkel I’d kind lost interest in him too, but herring the new sounds of Graceland reawakened my interest and I bought it. I’d been secretly hoping this might happen with Genesis but it never did. These days - having bought the album when the Jap mini vinyls appeared in 1999 it’s not as bad as I would have thought it in 1986 - some of it works well, some tracks are simply not to my taste, a couple of them are underwhelming and TTT is overlong (much prefer the 7” edit). LOC - I’m in the crowd that find the lyrics weak. It’s a decent enough tune though.
The hate culture is what keeps facebook alive too. Research show that negative (enraged or hating, not whining) posts tend to get more likes than positive ones.
The penultimate paragraph in your post is my experience too, as a generalisation . It’s scary and sad. My view on IT is very simple: It’s the first album I ever bought and loved it in ‘86-‘87. Listening too it now I still love it but that feeling relates to the nostalgia it generates rather than the quality of the album. I suspect if I came upon it now, in my mid-forties and with deep knowledge of the whole catalogue, I wouldn’t like it at all. I wouldn’t waste too much time hating on it though.....
Anything She Does It seems obvious from posts so far that this may be the most universally unpopular song on this album, even more so that the smash hit single that fires it off. Of course I think it's a good song. I think it is another good and interesting lyric, and I like the angle that the lyric comes from. It is a different perspective than most love song lyrics generally come from and is put together well. The track is an uptempo track with a nice enough little horn sound intro. I think in the context of this album, the horn sound is effective and doesn't sound out of place. I like the little staccato runs during the verses and the way they transition to the chords during the chorus. It hangs together nicely and has a nice flow between the sections. Sure this isn't Burning Rope or Suppers Ready, but the first is eight years prior and the second fourteen years prior. The whole face of music had changed considerably. The bands want to experiment in sounds during a time when more new sounds and types of synth were being invented every day, will generally alter a bands sound pretty radically is they are adventurous.... and Genesis had always been adventurous. This is one of my favourite songs or anything, but it is a decent pop/rock song that fits the album well.
“A decent pop/rock song” basically sums this up for me - I used to like it when I first had the album but on recent relistens for this thread, I realised that it just doesn’t have that “ooh” tingly moment I talked about before. Plus, these days the synth “horns” and especially the Benny Hill video make me cringe just a little. Still; must be the second best song about scantily-clad ladies in magazines after “Centerfold”?
Always always skipped it. Never liked it. In retrospect, I think it was because of the horn-ish part. It's ans "ok" song now. Still not a favourite but I can listen to it. The interplay between voice and keys in the verse is a nice touch. The theme is fun as well.
It's one of the songs with the most obvious differences between 86 and 2007 version - the remix has a significantly extended fade out. Also the only track never played live. Not sure why they made a video for it - was it a single anywhere? I have vague memories of it being released in Spain but even so, seems like they went to a lot of trouble video wise for not much return (and as @LivingForever says it's a pretty cringey video anyway!) I think it's a pretty decent track, lots of energy, but Banks lyric is a bit clunky. Probably my least favourite song on the album.
Anything She Does ... nope, nerp, nup. Never, ever liked it. Bad horn sound, kinda rips off Whip It in places, the mullets, the perms ... a stinker in the Genesis catalog, and would be lower-tier filler on a mediocre 80s teen sex comedy soundtrack (where it should have been relegated, if not nuked from orbit just to be sure). --Geoff
Anything She Does is a pretty decent pop song that has some hooks and never pushes me towards the skip button. The horn arrangement could have more bite for sure -definitely not the Tower of Power. Glad they included this song on the album.
Anything She Does I dont hate this song - it doesnt give me a headache like Land of Confusion - but nor is there anything I like about it. It feels rushed in a manner that makes the listener feel hyper, which I dont really like. I wont be listening to it by choice again. While I have said how completely cheesy I find the use of synth horns in general, everything about the instruments on this track sounds so artificial that at least it fits in. At least it doesnt go on and on like Tonight x3.
Dislike ASD when I think about it; enjoy it when I actually listen to it. Strange. The lyrics are quite touching considering they’re about Tony’s Porn stash.
I'm willing to discuss - what was high-schoolish about my post? I guess it's true that the average high schooler would not want to hear In Too Deep, a sappy, crappy adult-contemporary ballad, which would probably have more of an audience among out-0f-touch, middle-aged oafs. If that was the basis for your point, then I'm guilty as charged.
One of my favourites, but I think all of side 2 is excellent - beautifully played, melodic, thinking man’s pop, completely in the spirit of Genesis. ‘...or be the cause of anything she does.’ - in the throes of unrequited love, that line always got me.
Well, I don’t know your age, but being middle aged, that lyric has taken on far more poignancy. But the broader point is, I have been hearing people - mostly rigid old (out of touch crybaby) proggers, but occasionally those who thought the sun shone out of Joe Strummer’s bum - dismiss ‘In Too Deep’ for decades. The criticism has gotten tedious, as it’s often witless and shallow, and reflective more of them than the song. Is it in my top thirty Genesis songs? No. But labelling it pap is oafish. I found Genesis by way of The Beatles and not through Crimson or Yes or prog itself. I think that’s why I admire how good they got at writing simple, interesting pop songs. That’s what I think of ‘In Too Deep’. Straightforward poignant pop. Which is bloody hard to write.
...and I find it to be a disgusting disgrace of a song. Wow - our opinions differ. Never seen that on a message board before. Anyway, if you've been hearing for three decades that the song is terrible, you just might have to consider that your opinion is wrong.
