Way back on the 10th of May, my review for Genesis Live went up. If you want to read my observations about that particular work, they are there for you to skim. Suffice it to say; I came away impressed. Now here we are, with the last Genesis live album. The question is, has anything carried over?

The Way We Walk Vol. 2 (The Longs) (hereafter referred to as The Longs) is obviously Vol. 2 of a live concert. The first volume consisted of the hits, whereas The Longs attempts to reach out to fans of old school Genesis with some longer tracks. Sounds like a decent approach, trying to reach out to all of Genesis fandom with this two-pronged attack. While I do not have a problem with that, what causes concern is the track selection.

Raise your hand if you agree that Genesis' best progressive material occurred before 1974. I do, for one. But guess what, out of the six tracks, only one contains material previous to 1983. This is a huge problem, as the listener is left with questions along the lines of, "What happened to 'The Knife', or 'The Return Of The Giant Hogweed'"? Rule number one to the successful live offering; include your best songs!

That aforementioned single track containing pre-1983 material would be the opener, "Old Medley." Included within this medley are "Dance on a Volcano," "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," and "The Musical." One can also hear fairly large chunks of "Follow You, Follow Me," and "That's All." Now let's be honest, each of these sections is performed well; I wasn't crying for the original versions. However, what really gets me angry is the fact that apparently this version of Genesis didn't think the audience would have the attention span for one 20-minute long track. No, instead they break it up, for no decent artistic reason. I mean this album is supposed to be "the long tracks," so why the hell am I hearing "Follow You Follow Me"?

* Phew * rant over. Okay, on to the rest of The Longs. After the opening track, we are presented with four consecutive plus ten minute tracks. "Driving The Last Spike," spotlights the band letting loose a little bit, and injecting some energy into what I thought was somewhat of a lifeless track on We Can't Dance. "Domino," a track off of Invisible Touch that was to me one of the weaker efforts off that record, has more of a kick to it here. I tell you, there is nothing like hearing real drums as opposed to triggers. Collins is no slouch in the drumming department as evidenced by the last track, "Drum Duet." It is relatively short, something always beneficial for drum solos, and shuffles through various sorts of beats as the tracks intensity grows and grows.

"Fading Lights" is supposed to some ethereal, mystical track I think, but it fell through. It was a little too slow, a little too ethereal. Luckily, the second to last track is a keeper. "Home By The Sea" is easily the best performance the band turns in. A funky beat, courtesy of Collins and Rutherford starts things off, and just gets better from there. We get to hear some wild synth playing from Mr. Tony Banks, and thunderous pounding from Mr. Collins. Moments like these really convince you that Genesis, even at this point in their careers, could still rock.

Ok, I like most of the performances on this disc; these live offerings are superior to their studio counterparts. However, my problem is I'm not a big fan of these tracks to begin with. Again, this is a case of what if, this version of Genesis I think could have pulled off some great early Genesis numbers, but that's not what you get to hear on The Longs.

Rating: C+

User Rating: Not Yet Rated

Comments