We Can't Dance

by

Genesis

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Peter Gabriel Genesis and Phil Collins Genesis...for the most part, they are two different animals...both GREAT STUFF! And honestly, both "leaders" also had some "duds". I believe the reason this great album...yes I said GREAT, has only a total 3.5 star rating is that the older die-hard Gabriel-era fans are disgruntled that their favorite band refused to remain in the past. We, as fans, have seen this played-out over and over again...our favorite bands try to branch out and evolve---sometimes it works e.g. Genesis, Santana,etc...sometimes it doesn't, e.g. Metallica, ZZ-Top, etc... So, with that said, I'm giving 'We Can't Dance' 5 stars to try and offset the undeserved current rating. Likewise, I wouldn't give 5 stars to an album that did not deserve it. This is a very good Genesis album that rates 5 in my mind, and not for the "hits"...though they are worthy. The real treasure with this album lies with the unknown songs. Driving the Last Spike, Fading Lights, Dreaming While You Sleep, Living Forever, etc...some of which contain some very cool "proggy" passages. Many other reviewers have rated the individual songs quite well, so I will simply say this album means a great deal to me and provokes many emotions within me (probably due to a "tricky" relationship I was going through when I first heard this CD). This is one of my favorite releases of the past 20 years, so beware of every review you read...you may miss out on something that might have become a treasured part of your collection/Life! Jeff

Luis Mejia (son) - at the time We Can't Dance was released, the remaining Genesis was already widely recognized in more commercial terms and in popular music of the 80's, but as the 80's passed by, Genesis took themselves five years to release We Can't Dance. Better than the too commercialy induced and vague Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance represents a much more relieable strike with a much more rock inclinnation. Still, as the rock aspect is dominant in the album, it still doesn't capture a correct sense of their musical direction, while Phil Collins' control over the past album was in result of huge commercial success, the same happened here but just with the same problem, Collins dominant and commercial control over Genesis resulted in a musical disaster, I wonder if he somewhat got tired of making pop on his solo albums and also making pop on Genesis, so the result here was much more rock induced genre, while a lot of pop material also can be seen in this album. Oddly enough, this resulted in Collins last album with Genesis before his departure, I never got clear why he left the band, pretty much because I'm not interested just happy because that fool went off, but I always thought that the only virtuos musician left in Genesis was Tony Banks, as he always seemed to display good natured compositions with a lot of cerebral and certain prog touches, but even more oddly he decided to stay with Rutherford and add a new singer, in this case it was Wilson, and I don't blame him for screwing up Genesis I blame more Collins and Rutherford. Anyway, in commercial terms We Can't Dance became a huge album, with such hits as the blues-like, rocker, enjoyable I Can't Dance, the sentimental, powerful No Son Of Mine, while being a good song is too much of a Phil Collins' song, and Jesus He Knows Me stays as a fast paced, catchy and melodic song but too much of an dull composition. Still, the album doesn't represent any comeback to progressive rock, so early fans still won't be pleased, but I can recommend the album for the ones who'd like to see Genesis last rock features, although there is one song which gets closely enough to the progressive rock aspect, some may result pleased with the ten minutes long Driving The Last Spike, is the song that I mostly recommend because, even when it itsn't a progressive rock song at all, its slight changing mellodies, its story telling, emotional content and its powerful performance may result comfortable for some of us early Genesis fans, but don't stay too high on hopes. Apart from the rock aspect, there are a couple of more songs which keep certain slight surprises and musical turns, best seen in songs like Dreaming While You Sleep, not too much of a mellodic or recognizeable song, but its sublime atmosphere leaves certain good traces on the song, while also having a certain level of intricate rythms, although I strongly recommend not to hear it while driving, Tell Me Why stays as the only song that gets closely of being a power ballad, although it may sound comfortable for some listeners, and Living Forever is mainly a pop song, not too much to say about it but its catchy and well crafted guitar performance by Rutherford will stay on your mind for a long while. Still, there is a lot of pop material in this album, and not so much of pop, more of adult contemporary efforts, the first ones seen on Genesis, but this effort is such an unspected change and such a dull one, making songs like the dull, foolish, vaguely romantic and boring Hold On My Heart, the fatidical but at least with more melody Since I Lost You, and the exagerate, poppy Fading Lights a real waste of time. All in all, its still interesting to see how Collins' last steps with Genesis were much more of rock steps with certain effort, but after hearing such things as Foxtrot, its impossible to be satisfied. And At last, their true final album Calling All Stations, being a paradox to its title was the most desperate act that the remains of a band could ever reach to, I've never heard Calling All Stations with singer Ray Wilson, but what really bothers me is that they couldn't split with such dignity as they should've done in Duke.