Genesis - "Live Over Europe 2007"

This was a birthday present in 2008, from a very good friend of mine, whom I am sad to say, have not seen or spoken to in many years.

Anyway the power trio of Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, the best incarnation of the band Genesis, reunited in 2007 for a massive sold out tour. This double disc is a compilation from various performance around Europe. Like all the band's live albums and performances they mix all the various eras and styles (which I talked about in my previous post). The band sounds great and very polished as if they never disbanded or stopped touring.

Like most reunion album as well as live albums this is more a souvenir and aimed at the die hard fan rather than an essential album (much like Cream's recent live reunion release). There are some good extended instrumentals on the more experimental tracks like "Domino" and "In the Cage" but overall most reunion tours are designed to create nostalgia, which this does in an entertaining fashion. Like I said this album is fun but not really anything essentially great. I keep it because of the person who gave it to me.

Genesis - "Turn it on Again, The Hits"

Ok so anyone who is a decent size fan of the band Genesis knows that there are three distinct (well 4 if you count the one Post Phil Collins album, which I don't) eras of Genesis' music. The first era was the Peter Gabriel lead group of the early 70s. This era featured a largely experimental band that focused on Progressive Rock with elaborate concept albums. Gabriel left the group after a few years for his equally experimental but more successful solo career.

This started the second era when drummer Phil Collins took over as lead singer, the band continued in this progressive Rock style but Collins was making the music a little more mainstream.

Then there is the third and most popular era. Most of the original band left and the three remaining members, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks turned Genesis into a hit making machine with a series of smash pop songs and albums during the 1980s and 90s. This third era is really what a Genesis Hits collection should focus on.

By and large "Turn it on Again, The Hits" hits the mark, of its 18 tracks 15 come from the third era of the band. But whoever compiles these compilations is unwilling to focus on a single era: here they add two songs "I Know what I like," from the Gabriel era and "Congo" from the Post Collins era that we like to ignore. Neither of these two songs were actual hits and they take up space where two real hits "No Reply at All" and "Paperlate" should have gone. The "Platinum Collection" overlooks the same 2 hits and that spans three discs. There, however, is a nice new recording of "The Carpet Crawlers" that features both Collins and Gabriel in a duet featured here.

Overall this compilation features enough of the hits to make it a worthy collection and it is well priced. In 2007 an expanded edition was released, subtitled The Tour Edition, which features this entire disc plus a second disc. Again they mix together all the eras but they are spot on with the selection of the 2007 edition. "Turn it on Again, The Hits" is the choice for the budget conscious but if you have a few extra dollars, spring for the expanded Tour Edition.