A live album is supposed to offer something new to familiar songs. Longer solos, different structure, more power, a stripped-down approach -- all are hallmarks of truly great live albums. Unfortunately, Genesis never really put out a great live album of their early repertoire, as this double-album/disc set proves.
The songs represented are mostly from
A Trick Of The Tail, though a fair number are from the
previous albums and only one is taken from the album this set is in
support of, 1976's
Wind & Wuthering
. This means the listener gets a good
sampler of every Genesis album from 1970 forward, but it also means
Phil Collins has to assume the role of departed frontman Peter
Gabriel for these classic songs.
Are they done poorly on Seconds Out? Not by any means. These are great songs, after all. But there is nothing new or really exciting here; in fact, Genesis often stated they preferred to perform their pieces as close to the studio versions as possible, in the old days. Given the complexity, this makes sense.
"Squonk," "Robbery, Assault and Battery" and "Dance on a Volcano" are all present here, with no real modifications to the originals. "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and "The Carpet Crawl" are also here, with the former being a basic run-through and the latter a quite good performance of a Gabriel classic. Also, although it marked the first time the song was put on a live offering, "Supper's Ready" is a fairly standard rendition of a Genesis favorite, with not much new to offer.
There are a few spots on the album where Collins sounds lost, and a few where he really shines through, such as "Carpet Crawl" and "Firth of Fifth." And although "Fifth" and "Cinema Show" lose some of their power when done live, they are still two of the best and most emotional songs in the Genesis catalog and warrant listening.
A few surprises pop up here and there, such as a drum duet between Collins and Chester Thompson at the beginning of "Los Endos" and a really cool version of "I Know What I Like," with a drawn-out middle incorporating parts of "Stagnation" from 1970's Trespass, an album Collins didn't even appear on. Oddly, the closing section of "The Musical Box" is here, and while the ending is done well, one wonders where the rest of it went.
Again, Seconds Out isn't bad, but it clearly showed the end of an era for a progressive band that had just lost a lead singer and second guitarist. The journey this far had been fun, but this album signified the journey was at an end. A good, but not necessary, purchase.
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