Genesis – Selling England By The Pound (Analogue Productions 2024) (1973/2024) SACD ISO

Genesis – Selling England By The Pound (Analogue Productions 2024) (1973/2024)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 00:53:50 minutes | Full Scans included | 2,28 GB
Genre: Rock | Publisher (label): Analogue Productions – CAPA 002 SA

Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series)

Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!

Selling England By The Pound – Genesis’ gold-selling fifth studio album!

Hybrid Stereo SACD

Mastered directly from the original master tape by Bernie Grundman

Recorded in August 1973 — the tour for Foxtrot (1972) having ended in May of that year — Genesis’ members joined for a short time to write new material which covered a number of themes, including the loss of English folk culture and an increased American influence. Hence the inspiration for the title Selling England by the Pound.

Several tracks from the album became fan favorites and were featured as a regular part of the band’s live setlist well into the 1980s. “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe),” was released in February 1974 and became the band’s first Top 30 hit in the U.K. In 2012, the album ranked seventh in Rolling Stone’s “Readers’ Poll: Your Favorite Prog Rock Albums of All Time.” Selling England by the Pound reached No. 3 on the U.K. charts and No. 70 on the U.S. Billboard Pop Albums chart.

AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Genesis hadn’t sacrificed its newfound immediacy of Foxtrot with that album’s follow-up. They found ways to infuse with the delicate whimsy that was their calling card since the group began.

“This, combined with many overt literary allusions — the Tolkeinisms of the title of ‘The Battle of Epping Forest’ only being the most apparent — gives this album a storybook quality. It plays as a collection of short stories, fables, and fairy tales, and it is also a rock record, which naturally makes it quite extraordinary as a collection, but also as a set of individual songs. Genesis has never been as direct as they’ve been on the fanciful yet hook-driven ‘I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)’ — apart from the fluttering flutes in the fade-out, it could easily be mistaken for a glam single — or as achingly fragile as on ‘More Fool Me,’ sung by Phil Collins. It’s this delicate balance and how the album showcases the band’s narrative force on a small scale as well as large that makes this their arguable high-water mark.”

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Genesis – Extras Tracks 1983-1998 (2007) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Extras Tracks 1983-1998 (2007)
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 45:36 minutes | Scans included | 2.91 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 951 MB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

The long-awaited high-fidelity overhaul of the Genesis catalog began with a multi-album box set spanning 1976-1982 — the first half of Phil Collins’ reign as lead vocalist, otherwise known as the prog years of when the group was a trio. Instead of moving backward to cover the band’s early, arty years with Peter Gabriel, the next release in this series moved forward, covering 1983-1998, otherwise known as the “pop years” for the trio. To their credit, Genesis doesn’t try to write the 1998 post-Collins Calling All Stations out of their history: it’s right here, alongside 1983’s Genesis, 1986’s Invisible Touch, and 1991’s We Can’t Dance, plus a bonus disc with eight rarities. Going forward to these albums makes sense for two reasons: first of all, there’s the fact that this is the reunited lineup that was touring the world in 2007, but it’s also true that these digital-era productions are better showcases for 5.1 Surround mixes and they’re the records that have loads of video and multimedia material to fill out these DVD-As (in the U.K., this set is available as Hybrid SACDs as well). The video section of each of the albums contains all the video clips from the record, plus new interviews with the bands about the record, then there’s multimedia press kits added to the mix. It may be a more deluxe treatment than either We Can’t Dance or Calling All Stations, but it’s certainly something that will appeal to hardcore fans who will find this expertly produced set irresistible even if the music itself isn’t.

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Genesis – Extras Tracks 1976-1982 (2007) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Extras Tracks 1976-1982 (2007)
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 59:03 minutes | Scans included | 3,75 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,29 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

If the grouping of albums on this 2007 box set initially seems a little odd — it is neither a collection of the band’s early work, nor all of their albums after Peter Gabriel’s departure, nor is it their most popular work — it soon becomes apparent why these five albums are grouped together and reissued as remastered double-disc sets, with one disc containing a CD of the album, the other a DVD with a 5.1 mix and extra video material (in the U.K., the first disc contains hybrid SACDs of the albums, raising this question why they aren’t in this format in the U.S., especially since the bonus disc in this box is a hybrid SACD in all territories). These are the key art rock albums from the Phil Collins-fronted lineup of Genesis, the ones that the fans value, certainly more so than the pop-oriented Genesis and Invisible Touch. Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford reunited in 2007 for a tour, so it made sense to box up their key texts as a deluxe reissue, because this is indeed the music that the fans will want to hear on the tour. If the remastered sound wasn’t enough of an incentive for hardcore fans (although it often is), the set also includes plenty of supplemental material, highlighted by a bonus disc containing 13 rarities and B-sides, including the single “Paperlate.” That’s not the end of the bonus material, though: there’s also a 48-page book, and each DVD is packed with extra material, including promotional videos, TV appearances, replications of tour programs, and new interviews with the band about the making of the albums. The only drawback to the set is that it’s not available as hybrid SACDs in all territories, but really, that’s a minor complaint because this set is executed with love and care, living up to the high expectations of Genesis’ dedicated fans.

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Genesis – Extras Tracks 1970-1975 (2007) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Extras Tracks 1970-1975 (2007)
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 46:42 minutes | Scans included | 2,86 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 997 MB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

This supplemental disc has the exceptional B-side “Twilight Alehouse,” the single-only “Happy the Man,” the demo of the terrific “Going Out to Get You,” and the BBC session that produced “Shepherd,” “Pacidy,” and “Let Us Now Make Love” — all tracks that showed up on the 1998 box set Genesis Archives, Vol. 1: 1967-1975, but the real treat is the first official release of the four songs that comprise Genesis Plays Jackson, the band’s soundtrack to a show by artist Michael Jackson. Add to this the video material — limited to interviews on Trespass and Nursery Cryme, but containing full performances on Foxtrot and Selling England, plus the original slide shows used for the stage show of Lamb — and this box turns into something extraordinary: a nearly complete portrait of a restlessly creative band at their peak, whose output only sounds more distinctive with each passing year.

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Genesis – Wind & Wuthering (1976) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Wind & Wuthering (1976) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 50:57 minutes | Scans included | 3,19 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,03 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

Wind & Wuthering followed quickly on the heels of A Trick of the Tail and they’re very much cut from the same cloth, working the same English eccentric ground that was the group’s stock in trade since Trespass. But if A Trick of the Tail played like Genesis’ attempt at crafting a great Genesis record without Peter Gabriel, as a way of finding their footing as a quartet, Wind & Wuthering finds Genesis tentatively figuring out what their identity will be in this new phase of their career. The most obvious indication of this is Mike Rutherford’s “Your Own Special Way,” which is both the poppiest tune the group had cut and also the first that could qualify as a love song. It stands out on a record that is, apart from that, a standard Genesis record, but quite a good one in that regard.

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Genesis – We Can’t Dance (1991) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – We Can’t Dance (1991) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 71:48 minutes | Scans included | 4,48 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,54 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

After spending the 1980s moving in an increasingly pop-friendly direction, 1991’s We Can’t Dance marked a return to earlier aesthetics for Genesis. Edgier with more prominent guitars and live drums than on Invisible Touch, the record was the band’s strongest musical statement in over a decade. With “Driving the Last Spike” and the dark “Dreaming While You Sleep” the group revisited one of their forgotten strengths, telling extended stories. That’s not to say the album is a return to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or Trick of the Tail. Indeed, while there are several extended pieces on the record, there is none of the eccentricities, odd meters, or extended virtuoso solos of the band’s progressive heyday. The album’s closer, “Fading Lights,” comes the closest, featuring an outstanding instrumental mid-section. Unfortunately, the record also contains some gutless ballads and paeans for world understanding that sound miles away from any immediacy. However, the surprisingly gritty singles “No Son of Mine,” “Jesus He Knows Me,” and “I Can’t Dance” help make up for the album’s weaker moments.

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Genesis – Trespass (1970) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Trespass (1970) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:30 minutes | Scans included | 2,55 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 847 MB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

Genesis’ first truly progressive album, and their first record for the Charisma label (although Trespass was released in America by ABC, which is how MCA came to have it), is important mostly as a formative effort. Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Michael Rutherford are here, but the guitarist is Anthony Phillips and the drummer is John Mayhew. Gabriel, Banks, Phillips, and Rutherford are responsible for the compositions, which are far more ambitious than the group’s earlier efforts (“Silent Sun,” etc.). Unfortunately, much of what is here is more interesting for what it points toward than what it actually does — the group reflects a peculiarly dramatic brand of progressive rock, very theatrical as music, but not very successful. The lyrics are complex enough but lack the unity and clarity that would make Genesis’ subsequent albums among the most interesting of prog rock efforts to analyze. Gabriel’s voice is very expressive but generally lacks power and confidence, while the conventional backup vocalizing by the others is wimpy, and Phillips’ playing is muted. Tony Banks’ keyboards are the dominant instruments, which isn’t that bad, but it isn’t the Genesis that everyone came to know. The soft, lyrical “Visions of Angels” and “Stagnation” are typical, gentle works by a band that later learned how to rock much harder. Only one of the songs here, “The Knife” — which rocks harder than anything else on Trespass and is easily the best track on the album — lasted in the group’s concert repertory past the next album.

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Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (2xSACD, 1974) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (2xSACD, 1974) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 94:26 minutes | Scans included | 5,79 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,87 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

Given all the overt literary references of Selling England by the Pound, along with their taste for epic suites such as “Supper’s Ready,” it was only a matter of time before Genesis attempted a full-fledged concept album, and 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a massive rock opera: the winding, wielding story of a Puerto Rican hustler name Rael making his way in New York City. Peter Gabriel made some tentative moves toward developing this story into a movie with William Friedkin but it never took off, perhaps it’s just as well; even with the lengthy libretto included with the album, the story never makes sense. But just because the story is rather impenetrable doesn’t mean that the album is as well, because it is a forceful, imaginative piece of work that showcases the original Genesis lineup at a peak. Even if the story is rather hard to piece together, the album is set up in a remarkable fashion, with the first LP being devoted to pop-oriented rock songs and the second being largely devoted to instrumentals. This means that The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway contains both Genesis’ most immediate music to date and its most elliptical. Depending on a listener’s taste, they may gravitate toward the first LP with its tight collection of ten rock songs, or the nightmarish landscapes of the second, where Rael descends into darkness and ultimately redemption (or so it would seem), but there’s little question that the first album is far more direct than the second and it contains a number of masterpieces, from the opening fanfare of the title song to the surging “In the Cage,” from the frightening “Back in NYC” to the soothing conclusion “The Carpet Crawlers.” In retrospect, this first LP plays a bit more like the first Gabriel solo album than the final Genesis album, but there’s also little question that the band helps form and shape this music (with Brian Eno adding extra coloring on occasion), while Genesis shines as a group shines on the impressionistic second half. In every way, it’s a considerable, lasting achievement and it’s little wonder that Peter Gabriel had to leave the band after this record: they had gone as far as they could go together, and could never top this extraordinary album.

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Genesis – Selling England By The Pound (1973) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Selling England By The Pound (1973) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 53:37 minutes | Scans included | 3,34 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,12 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

Genesis proved that they could rock on Foxtrot but on its follow-up Selling England by the Pound they didn’t follow this route, they returned to the English eccentricity of their first records, which wasn’t so much a retreat as a consolidation of powers. For even if this eight-track album has no one song that hits as hard as “Watcher of the Skies,” Genesis hasn’t sacrificed the newfound immediacy of Foxtrot: they’ve married it to their eccentricity, finding ways to infuse it into the delicate whimsy that’s been their calling card since the beginning. This, combined with many overt literary allusions — the Tolkeinisms of the title of “The Battle of Epping Forest” only being the most apparent — gives this album a storybook quality. It plays as a collection of short stories, fables, and fairy tales, and it is also a rock record, which naturally makes it quite extraordinary as a collection, but also as a set of individual songs. Genesis has never been as direct as they’ve been on the fanciful yet hook-driven “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” — apart from the fluttering flutes in the fade-out, it could easily be mistaken for a glam single — or as achingly fragile as on “More Fool Me,” sung by Phil Collins. It’s this delicate balance and how the album showcases the band’s narrative force on a small scale as well as large that makes this their arguable high-water mark.

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Genesis – Nursery Cryme (1971) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Nursery Cryme (1971) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 39:33 minutes | Scans included | 2,41 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 791 MB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

If Genesis truly established themselves as progressive rockers on Trespass, Nursery Cryme is where their signature persona was unveiled: true English eccentrics, one part Lewis Carroll and one part Syd Barrett, creating a fanciful world that emphasized the band’s instrumental prowess as much as Peter Gabriel’s theatricality. Which isn’t to say that all of Nursery Cryme works. There are times when the whimsy is overwhelming, just as there are periods when there’s too much instrumental indulgence, yet there’s a charm to this indulgence, since the group is letting itself run wild. Even if they’ve yet to find the furthest reaches of their imagination, part of the charm is hearing them test out its limits, something that does result in genuine masterpieces, as on “The Musical Box” and “The Return of the Giant Hogweed,” two epics that dominate the first side of the album and give it its foundation. If the second side isn’t quite as compelling or quite as structured, it doesn’t quite matter because these are the songs that showed what Genesis could do, and they still stand as pinnacles of what the band could achieve.

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Genesis – Invisible Touch (1986) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Invisible Touch (1986) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 46:15 minutes | Scans included | 2.93 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 963 MB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

Delivered in the wake of Phil Collins’ massive success as a solo star, Invisible Touch was seen at the time as a bit of a Phil Collins solo album disguised as a Genesis album, and it’s not hard to see why. Invisible Touch is, without a doubt, Genesis’ poppiest album, a sleek, streamlined affair built on electronic percussion and dressed in synths that somehow seem to be programmed, not played by Tony Banks. In that sense, it does seem a bit like No Jacket Required, and the heavy emphasis on pop tunes does serve the singer, not the band, but it’s not quite fair to call this a Collins album, and not just because there are two arty tunes that could have fit on its predecessor, Genesis. There is a difference between Collins and Genesis — on his own, Phil was lighter, and Genesis was often a bit chillier. Of course, the title track is the frothiest thing the band ever did, while “In Too Deep” and “Throwing It All Away” are power ballads that could be seen as Phil projects, but “Land of Confusion” was a protest tune and “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” was a stark, scary tale of scoring dope (which made its inclusion in a Michelob campaign in the ’80s almost as odd as recovering alcoholic Eric Clapton shilling for the brewery). But those songs had big hooks that excused their coldness, and the arty moments sank to the bottom, obscured by the big, bold pop hooks here — pop that was the sound of the mainstream in the late ’80s, pop that still effortlessly evokes its time.

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Genesis – Genesis (1983) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Genesis (1983) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 46:19 minutes | Scans included | 2.92 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 46:19 mins | Scans included | 982 MB

Moments of Genesis are as spooky and arty as those on Abacab — in particular, there’s the tortured howl of “Mama,” uncannily reminiscent of Phil Collins’ Face Value, and the two-part “Second Home by the Sea” — but this eponymous 1983 album is indeed a rebirth, as so many self-titled albums delivered in the thick of a band’s career often are. Here the art rock functions as coloring to the pop songs, unlike on Abacab and Duke, where the reverse is true. Some of this may be covering their bets — to ensure that the longtime fans didn’t jump ship, they gave them a bit of art — some of it may be that the band just couldn’t leave prog behind, but the end result is the same: as of this record, Genesis was now primarily a pop band. Anybody who paid attention to “Misunderstanding” and “No Reply at All” could tell that this was a good pop band, primarily thanks to the rapidly escalating confidence of Phil Collins, but Genesis illustrates just how good they could be, by balancing such sleek, pulsating pop tunes as “That’s All” with a newfound touch for aching ballads, as on “Taking It All Too Hard.” They still rocked — “Just a Job to Do” has an almost nasty edge to its propulsion — and they could still get too silly as on “Illegal Alien,” where Phil’s Speedy Gonzalez accident is an outright embarrassment (although in some ways it’s not all that far removed from his Artful Dodger accent on the previous album’s “Who Dunnit?”), and that’s why the album doesn’t quite gel. It has a little bit too much of everything — too much pop, too much art, too much silliness — so it doesn’t pull together, but if taken individually, most of these moments are very strong, testaments to the increasing confidence and pop power of the trio, even if it’s not quite what longtime fans might care to hear.

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Genesis – Foxtrot (1972) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Foxtrot (1972) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 51:17 minutes | Scans included | 3,12 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,02 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

Foxtrot is where Genesis began to pull all of its varied inspirations into a cohesive sound — which doesn’t necessarily mean that the album is streamlined, for this is a group that always was grandiose even when they were cohesive, or even when they rocked, which they truly do for the first time here. Indeed, the startling thing about the opening “Watcher of the Skies” is that it’s the first time that Genesis attacked like a rock band, playing with a visceral power. There’s might and majesty here, and it, along with “Get ‘Em Out by Friday,” is the truest sign that Genesis has grown muscle without abandoning the whimsy. Certainly, they’ve rarely sounded as fantastical or odd as they do on the epic 22-minute closer “Supper’s Ready,” a nearly side-long suite that remains one of the group’s signature moments. It ebbs, flows, teases, and taunts, see-sawing between coiled instrumental attacks and delicate pastoral fairy tales. If Peter Gabriel remained a rather inscrutable lyricist, his gift for imagery is abundant, as there are passages throughout the album that are hauntingly evocative in their precious prose. But what impresses most about Foxtrot is how that precociousness is delivered with pure musical force. This is the rare art-rock album that excels at both the art and the rock, and it’s a pinnacle of the genre (and decade) because of it.

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Genesis – Duke (1980) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Duke (1980) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 55:05 minutes | Scans included | 3,49 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,14 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

If And Then There Were Three suggested that Genesis were moving toward pop, Duke is where they leaped into the fray. Not that it was exactly a head-first leap: the band may have peppered the album with pop songs, but there was still a heavy dose of prog, as the concluding “Duke” suite made clear. This is modernist art rock, quite dissimilar to the fragile, delicate Selling England by the Pound, and sometimes the precision of the attack can be a little bombastic. Nevertheless, this is a major leap forward in distinguishing the sound of Genesis, the band, and along with a new signature sound come pop songs, particularly in the guise of “Misunderstanding” and “Turn It on Again.” The first is a light, nearly soulful, heartache song, the latter is a thunderous arena rocker, and both showcase the new version of Genesis at its absolute best. The rest of the record comes close to matching them.

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Genesis – Calling All Stations (1997) [Remastered Reissue 2007] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis – Calling All Stations (1997) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 67:59 minutes | Scans included | 4,35 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,41 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround sound

Phil Collins left Genesis following the We Can’t Dance tour and many observers expected Tony Banks and Michael Rutherford to finally call it a day. They decided to persevere instead, hiring former Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson to replace Collins. Given that Stiltskin was a European neo-prog band, it isn’t a total surprise that Genesis returned to their art rock roots on Calling All Stations, their first album with Wilson. The music on Calling All Stations is long, dense, and lugubrious, but it’s given the same immaculate, pristine production that was the hallmark of their adult contemporary work with Collins. It wants to be an art rock album, but not at the expense of losing the pop audience – which makes it all the stranger that the group doesn’t really write pop songs on Calling All Stations. That may be because Wilson’s voice isn’t suited for pop, but works well with languid, synthesized prog settings. But even ponderous prog rock has to have musical themes worth exploring, and on that level, Genesis come up dry on Calling All Stations.

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