Genesis – ...Calling All Stations...

The last 2 weeks I have set out to listen to every Genesis album. Out of everything I have listened to so far. This is by far my least favorite. This is just so fucking boring. Not even bad. Just BORING. Like many others have said. This album leaves me asking "Why". This album makes me feel nothing. It's not even good background music. Maybe if I wanted to take a nap!

There is a French version
Rear paper barcode sticker: 7243 8452322 0
Printed in Holland
PM 527

Diffusion Exclusive Virgin SA
Complete with an extra 2 track cd “Banjoman” and “No Son Of Mine” (live acoustique) in stickered card sleeve.
All shrinked wrapped with std jewel case cd.

What's the sound quality like? I have the 2016 reissue, but I'm hoping to get an OG pressing some day.

I appreciate that it's de rgueur for the most part to disparage this album and ittedly, many of the tracks, most even, are disappointing. But I'm as big a fan of Genesis as it is possible to be and have been so since Trick of the Tail, and attended, God it was glorious, in my town, the concert that become Seconds Out. So. I don't quarrel with a skeptical view of Calling All Stations. But. I maintain that One Man's Fool ought to be at the top of everyone's favorite track list. I just adore the track, and boy does it fit our era, it's lyrically uncanny, this track; certainly so in the case of Great Britain, post Brexit and Boris. I also therefore dig the irony of that being their last track if you know what I mean on their final album. For purists, my copy is the one that was in the red LP box set of their final albums, 83-98, so this is half speed I'm pretty sure, cut at Abbey Road, and this was pressed at I believe Optimal. Listening complemented immensely by a Koetsu Rosewood Signature riding an SL1200GAE's tonearm. Pre is McIntosh C500 in tube configuration, speakers Paradigm Tribute. A listening session is just glorious with such kit and this resource. Anyway, this is one fan's view.

Let it be said, Ray Wilson is no Phil Collins. And he's certainly no Peter Gabriel either. But he is still able to compose some decent pop songs. But that becomes the main issue with "Calling All Stations". It's little more than a mid 90's pop album. Phil Collins leaving Genesis pretty much sucked out all their mainstream appeal and this album feels like such a desperate attempt to maintain that mainstream appeal. A lot of these tracks are extremely bland in comparison to their earlier stuff. And it doesn't even sound like Genesis anymore. It sounds like an entirely different band. So calling this a Genesis record is a stretch in my opinion.

That being said, some standout songs here are "Congo", which I think is a pretty fun pop song. And "Not " is a hauntingly beautiful ballad. But this album makes you realize more than ever that Genesis should've just dropped the idea of making an album without Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel.

A lonely Pluto that represented the end of a solar system, not the start of a new one. Still some good tracks though, the title track and 'Shipwrecked' being of note.

This album was weak. Weak songs, but decent playing.

I REALLY missed Phil's vocals and DRUMS.

Horribly, horribly underrated. Considering how terrible most of the Genesis material after Duke was, this is not only a genuinely excellent record but a return to form after nearly two decades of embarrassing soft rock. Ray Wilson's voice is stunning and brilliantly suited to the darker tones of what is essentially a complex, sinister breakup album. It's a shame that, because this came so late in Genesis' genesis (ahem), it tends to be discounted - as on the Platinum Collection, to which this LP's title track is welded with no regard to chronology as an afterthought. In truth, this is probably their strongest work since 1978. It even managed to produce three solid pop singles without selling its soul. Which is something one wouldn't expect from the band that released 'Illegal Alien' and 'I Can't Dance' and 'Invisible Touch' and, erm, well. The record is highly reminiscent of some of their best synth work and song construction, but without sounding watered-down or ersatz. This vinyl edition is particularly nice, with its gatefold and etching. It's quite a good pressing, too.