Album Review: Invisible Touch (Genesis, 1986)

I approached this album with no prior Genesis experience other than the association of Phil Collins with "soft rock", though I did have an appreciation of Peter Gabriel through So and Us. In short, I anticipated some form of mild, Gabriel-influenced progressive rock.

1. "Invisible Touch" - Needless to say, the upbeat 80's-style pop energy of the opening title track exploded in my face and knocked me over, enjoyably so.



2. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" -The second track was much more what I had originally anticipated for the album (a slower, more ambient feel), though with strong emotional vocals.



3. "Land of Confusion" - This caught me off guard, as I'd been somewhat familiar with the cover version of this track by Disturbed and hadn't realized Genesis had originally done it. Angry and upbeat in tone and feel.



4. "In Too Deep" - This track was the type of soft rock I had associated with Collins. Somewhat cheesy, but not terrible.



5. "Anything She Does" - The 80's-style energetic opening here was not a charming as with the first track, though the energy of the rest of the song (and the refrain especially) grew on me.



6. "Domino" - The two-part nature of this extended track was more of what I had expected in terms of progressive rock. Ambient (a glowing feel) in part one ("In the Glow of the Night"), with part two ("The Last Domino") becoming driving and heavy, successfully heightening the nightmare imagery of the lyrics. I love that part two slows down and echoes the same ending as in part one.



7. "Throwing it All Away" - Another soft rock track in the style of Collins, though better than track 4.



8. "The Brazilian" - A great progressive rock instrumental, mechanical and industrial in sound that marches forward, building to the guitar line that sings out as the album starts to fade.

At first listen, the album faded between memorable and blurry, though overall, it was interesting. However, I found myself returning to the album and replaying it with great frequency, adapting to it very quickly. It blends 80's pop, soft rock and progressive rock into, what feels to me, as a unique and memorable blend. Of course, I felt the need to check out the music video for "Land of Confusion", which features extensive use of crafted latex puppets to caricature political and pop-culture figures of the era; although I admire the amount of technical work put into the video, I feel it somewhat tones down the anger of the song with satire, though there are some really cool moments. I now count Invisible Touch among my favourites.

I GIVE IT
4.7 / 5