Product Description

On 1991's WE CAN'T DANCE, Genesis hit the ground running with its first studio record in five years. Long past the theatrical prog-rock of the Gabriel years, the trio of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford had made the transitionto MTV icons whose material was skewering toward a definitive baby-boomer audience. Despite the five-year layoff, Genesis managed to spin off five top-30 singles that dealt with the kinds of adult topics that usually don't wind up on normally youth-driven pop charts.
Some of the subject matter dealt with on these hits includes the hypocrisy of televangelists ("Jesus He Knows Me"), acidic parent-child relationships ("No Son of Mine"), and the disintegration of long-time relationships ("Never a Time"). Other topics dealt with on WE CAN'T DANCE include the unskilled workers who built England's railways in the 19th century ("Driving the Last Spike") and the homeless ("Tell Me Why"). There's also a requisite ballad for the adult contemporary market, "Hold on My Heart".

Track Listing

1. No Son Of Mine
2. Jesus He Knows Me
3. Driving The Last Spike
4. I Can't Dance
5. Never A Time
6. Dreaming While You Sleep
7. Tell Me Why
8. Living Forever
9. Hold On My Heart
10. Way Of The World
11. Since I Lost You
12. Fading Lights

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43257 in Music
• Released on: 1991-11-11
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The final Genesis studio album to feature Phil Collins, on it he is even more firmly in the driving seat than with their previous release, Invisible Touch. However, We Can't Dance has little of its predecessor's exuberant freshness. Over 70 minutes long, much of the album feels as though the inspiration and ideas have been spread too thinly, resulting in a new-found flabbiness in the arrangements and the lyrics. In particular, Collins' too-predictable vocal mannerisms can soon start to grate; in conjunction with the appallingly trite expressions of political concern that are "Tell Me Why" and "Way Of The World", they produce a rather distasteful spectacle. Of course this is not the whole story, and there are moments throughout when the carefully crafted choruses and smoothly integrated sound of later Genesis win through to great effect. The most effective tracks include "Dreaming While You Sleep", "No Son Of Mine" and "I Can't Dance". "Hold On My Heart" proves that Collins can still produce real emotion rather than mere shallow ballads of mid-life crisis. A thoroughly slick and professional offering, it's a shame that despite the self-mocking humour of the title, the album has rather a drab air about it. It's not surprising that this was the line-ups' last recording together. --James Swift

Customer Reviews

Better than most
I have always felt that this is a very underrated album and reading the Amazon review by James Swift confirmed my opinion. I have been a Genesis fan since seeing the original band with Peter Gabriel (and long before Phil Collins and Steve Hackett) back in 1969. Their first 'proper' album 'Trespass' is still a masterpiece and way ahead of its time. However they have had their weaker moments - 'The Lamb Lies Down' has always seen overblown to me and when Hackett left the band lost some of its power.
I felt that 'We Can't Dance' restored some of the older feel whilst still moving the band on. There are some trite moments with the odd Phil Collins solo album cast offs which could easily have been left off this album. However songs such as 'Dreaming While You Sleep' 'Driving the Last Spike' and 'Fading Lights' hark back to the Genesis epics of an earlier era whislt the originality of 'No Son of Mine' 'I Can't Dance' and 'Jesus He Knows Me' show the many different sides of the band. This is not a perfect album -as I said earlier it is a bit too long with the too many fillers but if you can cope with this you have an album that is better than most.

A phenomenal and hard-hitting album
For years previously, Genesis had never conquered real emotion and exhitibted such beliefs as those shown in this masterful album. Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks prove to us once more that they can produce a versatile and completely different style of music from that of their previous album. It is the trademark of Genesis (i have always believed) to always give the listener something new in every album and that's exactly what they have proved through the years and even more so in We Can't Dance. It was a perfect way for Phil to say goodbye to the Genesis listeners of the 80's, who associated his voice with Genesis and came to love it so. And the modesty of the title is equally compelling and not to mention amusing

The best accomplished Genesis album, if not their best songs
We Can't Dance generally get the hard side from most reviewers, and I have to say I disagree completely. The reason why I hold this album in so high esteem is a fact that probably evades most listeners: None of the songs on this album were ever performed better live than on the album.

So what?, you might think. But this statement is actually stronger than it seems; with very few exceptions, every Genesis song written between 1970 and 1990 were performed in live versions that were superior to the studio version. This was not the case for the songs off We Can't Dance, and for this reason, it's actually one of the very few Genesis studio albums I actually sit around and listen to. Otherwise, I'll get one of their incredible live albums - for at starter, get Three Sides Live and see what I meen, that album effectively renders Abacab, so treasured by many, completely obsolete.

But enough on that, the other strong force of this album is the quality of the music. As opposed to many reviewers here, I find no fillers on this album. Yes, the politisation in 'Tell Me Why' is perhaps not their strongest moment, but it's not a bad song, and the honesty in Phil's voice makes it for me. "If there's a God, is he watching, can he give a ray of hope?" is simply chillingly beautiful. and I find 'Way Of The World' to be a throughly enjoyable pop-song, can't see anything wrong in that. And that's what is probably the weaker moments on the record.

The record starts off with a burst of emotion in 'No Son Of Mine', first single of the album and one of Phil's most emotional songs ever, vocally as well as lyrically. In a lighter mood we find singles 'I Can't Dance' (second single) and 'Jesus He Knows Me' (fourth single), entertaining songs and smash hits both of them, and still we're not near the best part of the album.

Third single 'Hold On My Heart' was in my oppinion somewhat of a miss pick, it's a great song with excellent lyrics, but it was not the ballad of the album with most hit potential. I think 'Never A Time', discarded in last moment as sixth(!) single off the album, could have fared much better. The latter is an extremely beautiful song about the disruption of a relationship, one of the bands strongest love songs ever in my oppinion. And even more beautiful is the brilliant 'Since I Lost You', written for Eric Clapton after his son's tragic death.

And it get's better yet in the group of semi-long (7-minute) and long (10 minute) epic songs of the album. 'Driving The Last Spike' is an epic on the trials of the British railway workers, and with it's 10+ minutes features lots of great instrumental sections, and a vocal by Phil that is very touching. More thrilling is 'Dreaming While You Sleep', the frightened musing of the hit and run driver about the fate of his victim; musically, this song is brilliantly done with eery keyboard sound and Phil's trademark thundring drum style, and the lyrics are brilliantly conceived - "All my life, I'll be haunted by; all my life, just one moment in time! All my life ... until the day I die. All my life, I will never be free; all my life, trapped in her memory! All my life, 'til the day that you open your eyes."

On the lighter side is 'Living Forever', an ironical musing on modern day health obsession and the constantly changing to-do and to-avoid lists. The song is a brilliant pop-song in itself, and the instrumental second part is great. And then last, but certainly not least, comes the epic 'Fading Lights'. In my oppinion, this might be the best 10 minutes the band ever did, certainly, it's up there with old classics like 'Firth Of Fifth'. The lyrics are brilliant, one reviewer stated he was moved to tears everytime he listens to this, and I have to agree. This is one of the most beautiful texts ever written, in all its simplicity. Furthermore, the long instrumental part of this song is amazing, this song so vividly displays the amazing song writing skill of this threesome. With an almost prophetic quality, this was the last song the band recorded with Phil Collins on vocals, and it was the best of them all.

The quality of this album lies in three things: The great overall song quality, 6 songs from the album was released as single A-sides (No Son Of Mine, I Can't Dance, Hold On My Heart, Jesus He Knows Me, Tell My Why and in continental Europe only - Never A Time). Furthermore, 2 songs were released as B-sides (Living Forever, Way Of The World), and 2 more were instant live clasics (Driving The Last Spike, Fading Lights). The rare live performance of Dreaming While You Sleep is one of the treasured live performances of the band, and Since I Lost You was sufficiantly important for Phil to chose this song as one as his most important songwriting moments on VH1 storytellers. Not a bad fare of a 12 track album! That the amazing track On The Shoreline didn't make the album is another proof of the overall great quality of the songs!

The great production of the songs is another key factor. The songs are presented in immaculate version on the album, making it a listening pleasure from start to end. And finally, the atmosphere of the album is great. This comes from many things, the devoted performance, the great production, the great arrangement of the songs on the album, and even the brilliant atwork adds up to the total.

OVERALL RATING: 10/10