Genesis - Turn It on Again: Tour Edition

The 18 songs collected here were some of the biggest smashes to hit radio and the growing world of music videos in the eighties and beyond. Songs like Land Of Confusion, Invisible Touch, and I Can’t Dance made Genesis one of the biggest touring arena bands and made members Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford household names. Album Description

Good Introduction or Summary

I've been a Genesis fan since I first heard "Mama" way back when. I retroactively collected the entire discography, and fell in love with the progressive rock era Genesis, and was a fan through high school and college. Eventually, I branched out into enough other music that Genesis took a back seat. I recently started reviving these old interests (along with Rush and They Might Be Giants -- two other teenage favorites), and saw this album while looking around for current information online.

I actually bought it because I thought it was a live album of their recent tour. That was my mistake, but I'm still not clear as to why it's called "Tour Edition." So if you're suffering the same misconception, let me clear it up with the statement that this is a greatest hits package.

That being said, I sure do enjoy having an album in rotation that "summarizes" Genesis without dedicating 12 hours or more to the entire catalog.

I found the song selection somewhat peculiar, as well as the sequencing. The sequence is such that songs are presented newest first, with the exception being that the first song is from Abacab, an album squarely in the middle of their discogrpahy, and the last song if from Calling All Stations, their most recent studio album (the one without Phil Collins, which to be honest I was never interested in for that reason). I get that you'd want to start things off with the album's namesake song, but why end with the most recent song in an otherwise reversed chronology? I don't get it. It feels really out of place, as the regression through time has a nice pace to it, then after you get to the one song from the earliest album (interestingly, the other album without Collins), you jump some 30 years in songwriting, production technique, and style to "Congo."

The song selection itself is generally good, and for the most part probably represents what I would pick if I were putting together my own 2.5 hour playlist of Genesis songs, although i'd go lighter on the newer hits and heavier on the older "art pieces." It's weird to me, though, that of the 34 songs on the collection, 4 of then (Paperlate, Pigeons, Inside And Out, and Happy The Man) are B-Sides...not exactly hits, that I know of. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have some rarer material in my collection, I'd just love to have sat in on the meeting where they decided which songs get on this release.

All in all, I enjoy having this album as it's a good summary. I suspect if someone were interested in Genesis but didn't know where to start, this would also serve as a good introduction. June 27, 2008

Genesis best greatest hits cd

This is has to be the best Genesis greatest hits cd period , to tell the truth this tour edition is a whole lot better than the original , this has a whole lot more hit songs than the other one. highly recommended. May 25, 2008

No live tracks, but cut clean good stuff inside!

I bought this album almost 2 years after I bought "Turn it on again" in anticipation of this album having live content I was disappointed to listen to tracks I already had, but never the less, I was impressed, and It's a must have for any serous Genesis fan, young and old. It's well worth the 16 bucks I paid, since it's a double disk, and well, the music is jsut as fine as they where in the 80's and 90's. I give it a high 5! April 18, 2008

Brings back the 80's and 90's!

I could listen to Genesis (or Phil Collins, Pete G or Mike & The Mechanics) time and time again, its been some years since I grew up with them in the UK, but now I'm listening again and it all still sounds as good if not better than back then. Land of Confusion is still one of the better tracks from the 90's. April 1, 2008

Turned On Again

When it came to great classic music from last year, there were a few delightful acts that reunited for the first time in years. While some feel like it was a real waste of time like Foreigner without Lou Grant as the lead, others like The Police returning fo the fiorst time in years, felt like it really was worth the ticket. That also can really be said as well with Genesis. For Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, the trio returning again really proved to be well worth its while not just on stage, but their catalog got a whole new makeover, as their albums from the Mid 70's, all the way to 1997's final album Calling All Stations were re-issued in Dolby Digital sound, and feel better than ever. That also can be said in stone with a more-rounded greatest hits album as well.

The 2007 Turn It On Again: The Hits (The Tour Edition), takes what was left from Genesis and their single disc 1999 edition of Turn It On Again, and expands it into a better hits album. Unlike their other hits record, the 2005 Platinum Collection, this one appeals mostly all the way through, by focusing in on the main tracks as hits, and not going into the lesser-known ones. The collection includes a lot of classics including all the original tracks that were released from the original Turn It On Again like their classic dance tunes like I Can't Dance and their only #1 smash Invisible Touch, to somber ballads like In Too Deep and Throwing It All Away, to innovative beats like the heart-pounding Mama and Land Of Confusion. The collection also works well by bringing in a lot of the hits that were overlooked from the previous hits collections, especially the tracks overlooked from the Platinum Collection like No Reply At All and Man On the Corner from Abacab, as well as classic gems like Illegal Alien and the somber Afterglow. Still, there is one disadvantage to this album, the collection does overshadow tracks from the Peter Gabriel era, when he was the lead of Genesis in the late 60's and 70's, as tracks like The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway weren't highlighted as well as other greats like Home By The Sea and Anything She Does, in favor of lesser-known singles like Tell Me Why from We Can't Dance.

Overall, there really have been many different Genesis hits' collections. But when it comes down to it, Turn It On Again: The Hits (Tour Edition) is about as close as possible to being the most definitive reflection of what Genesis brought to the table in way of great pop music for nearly 5 decades, and taking what was a fair single disc collection from 1999, and expanding it so well to appeal to anyone who hasn't heard a Genesis album before. I absolutely recommend the 2007 Turn It On Again: The Hits (Tour Edition) as a must have for your MP3 library.

Songs: B+

Price: A-

Remastering: A

Overall: B+ January 2, 2008

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