Genesis – Calling All Stations – 1997
What. The. Fuck. Is. This?
Peter Gabriel soundalike Ray Wilson was brought in by Rutherford and Banks to take Phil Collins' place after he left for good. The result is, well, it's nowhere near the MOR that I've come to be used to since Duke.
It's darker and more aggressive. The title track has a post industrial feel to it. (Jumping on trends, are we?) As if someone was following Gabriel's lead, finally, but doing it 30 years later so it sounds more like the pap that Queen was peddling in their later days. If the song didn't just disappear into ether I would actually say I kind of liked it, but it feels unfinished. “Congo” could have benefitted from Collins' mirthful gravitas, and some editing.
Allmusic.com put it best: It wants to be an art rock album, but not at the expense of losing the pop audience.
And that pretty much sums it up.
A worthless spin.
Grade: D
A Side: –
BlindSide: The Dividing Line
DownSide: The rest...
Mike + The Mechanics – Mike + The Mechanics – 1985
The Paul & Paul project! Paul Carrack! Paul Young! And that big ol 80s sound.
“Silent Running” is one of the two hits you remember from this record and Paul Carrack sounds SOOOOO much like Phil Collins on a song that sounds like it was written BY Phil Collins that I wonder: Did Mike Rutherford sit at home and think: “Fucking drummer. I can write that shit. I'll prove it!” And then this came out of him?
Cause. Wow. And just what is the deal with Paul Carrack? He was in Ace, then he wasn't. Then he was in Squeeze. Then he wasn't. Then he's here. Then he's elsewhere. Is he just the nicest guy in the world or the guy you THINK is the nice guy and he really sucks. Cause he brings a load of treacle to everything he touches.
(editor's note: I think I'm burning out hard on this kind of mid-80s pop/pap.)
It's really impossible to be unbiased when listening to this stuff, that electronic drum just dates the shit out of this crap. Maybe it's great. I don't know. I know it's mid-tempo and all sounds like it fell off the soundtrack to St. Elmo's Fire, but those drums! Blech blech blech.
That said, “All I Need is a Miracle” is a great little single. And “I Get the Feeling” would have been a great Donald Fagen tune. “You Are the One” is the kind of horrible crap that...I have no metaphor. It's awful.
The smooth jazz songs on this record are completely inoffensive. The rock is also toothless. Most of that sounds like a cross between 80s Queen and Sparks.
The record is perfectly designed to sell to the boomers of the era. It's a record I expect to hear sold to 35 year olds of the era. 25 years later, it's a relic. A relic written and performed by professionals, though. I'll give them that.
Grade: D+
A Side: Silent Running, All I need is a Miracle
BlindSide: Par Avion, I Get the Feeling, Take the Reins
DownSide: You Are the One, Taken In
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