• AllMyVinyl #142
• Band: Genesis
• Album Title: Invisible Touch
• Release Date: 6 Jun 1986
• Date purchased: 30 Jul 2024
• Location purchased: Genesis store
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

Today’s album in this series is one that splits fans of the band.  Some consider it a pop masterpiece, and some consider it an affront to anything that the band ever held a musical vision for.  I’m speaking of the 1986 album “Invisible Touch” by Genesis.  I was 21 when it came out, and at the time Genesis was super huge.  The couple of albums they did before this (Genesis, Abacab, & Duke) were stupid popular – you couldn’t escape them.  Inbetween we had Phil Collins’ most popular solo album (No Jacket Required).  We also had Live Aid in 1985 where Collins played both the London and Philadelphia locations.  Collins was a mega star in the mid 80’s, so when we got back to Genesis for this, their 13th studio album overall, Collins was there along with Banks & Rutherford.  I think most of the hardcore Genesis fans from the earliest years who were Peter Gabriel fans tended to hate this album.

The biggest criticism at the time is that it sounded like a Phil Collins solo album.  Back when this was new, I kind of bought into that somewhat, I downplayed the album, I liked the earlier stuff (and I mean earlier Collins – I was never a huge fan of the Gabriel era).  There’s a handful of songs from this album I always loved from day 1 (I’ll get into that later), but overall I tended to think “eh” for this one, I think because of the extreme poppiness of the total track and lead single.  But as time has gone on I came off that stance.  I realized I liked far more than I let myself believe, so I eventually went “screw it, I like this album”.

It’s partially that last reason that I got it in 2024.  Genesis reissued all their studio albums (except the original one from 1969 they don’t have rights to), I picked this up along with a couple others.  I was always looking forward to doing this in my vinyl series.  At the time I bought this, I hadn’t actually started the series, but it was only a few weeks away, so conceptually it existed in my head.  For that reason I never opened the vinyl when I got it, since I knew I was gonna do this album in the series, so today  as I write this is the first time I’ve listened to this vinyl copy of the album.  I have of course owned it in the past in the 80’s on CD and cassette, but none of those copies still exist – this 2024 vinyl is the only copy of the album I have these days.

It’s odd because as I think back to what to write about this, I can’t recall much else.  I remember the “that’s really a Phil Collins record” controversy when it was new and that it didn’t sound like Genesis, so that’s all I can recall beyond the handful of songs I liked from back then.  It was a monster hit – is Genesis’ top selling album of all time, produced half a dozen music videos.  Yet I find myself in a hard place coming up with what to say about it.  Maybe the song breakdown will shake something from my mind going forward in this article.

Invisible Touch – Probably the most well known song on the album.  It was the lead single, it’s the first song on the album, and is “Exhibit A” in the “This sounds like a Phil Collins album” argument.  It is definitely the most “pop” oriented song on the album.  Was probably a good choice to lead off the album, however.  Given when this was released, and what Genesis had been doing prior to this it’s not THAT out of line.  As I listen to this nearly 40 years later, I don’t think it’s a bad song, when new, it was a very divisive track amongst Genesis fans.  Today’s listen seems to make me hear the bass fills at certain points of the song I don’t recall from the past.  I don’t know if that’s something connected to a more recent remix, or my faulty memory a few decades down the line.  But I enjoyed the listen today.  1986 me probably would have given 2025 me a bitter beer face reaction reading that.

Tonight Tonight Tonight – Second longest song on the album at 8:51..  I always felt that right away this showed the album wasn’t a Collins solo record.  This doesn’t sound like what we’d get from Collins.  It sounds like something I’d hear in the Gabriel era at points.  Like the Rutherford guitar fills in the slower part of the song (which is a lot of it actually).  The bulk of this song is the same beat, which I always felt was a bit slow for my tastes.  It’s not exactly bad, but I felt this song could have been a LOT shorter.  Knock three mins off and it’s still knocking on the door of 6 mins.  That’s probably my biggest complaint for this – too long.  The middle part I kind of liked – has that old school Genesis prog feel (speaking of the bit that starts about 3:15 of the song).  But even that goes on a bit too long IMO.

Land of Confusion – Now this song hits harder if you were of age when it was new.  Ronald Reagan – the US President during most of the 80’s is the target of the video here.  It’s made up of puppets – the famous “Spitting Image” group.  The video’s subject is about how Reagan is leading the world to war, and his own thoughts about it (as a puppet).  Genesis themselves got the puppet treatment.  The song is a banger too – it’s not just the video.  One of those combinations of good song with popular video really enhancing the others.  BUT..  I was 21 when this came out, so was the prime target audience.  I don’t know this would play out to someone now 4 decades later who wasn’t current with the Reagan stuff.  Song’s still good, but the political message here probably isn’t the same – I should probably have my daughter test this theory.  I wonder if she’d get all the pop culture references here.  Musically I was a big fan of the bass lines that run behind the chorus – great sound.  Has several changes so it doesn’t sound like the same thing through the whole song.  One of my favorite overall Genesis tracks.  Definitely my favorite song on THIS album – wish more of the album was like this.

Also, around 2005, the metal band Disturbed (who does a smoking cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence“) covered Land of Confusion as well.  Silence was a slower more haunting cover – this one is more a straight up cover which thematically matches the original more.  I don’t think it’s much of a banger as Silence was, but it’s still very enjoyable.  They animated a music video for it as well – you check it out here.

In Too Deep – This album came out in 1986, so..  ballad time.  This DOES sound like a Collins solo track from around this time.  I remember it being a decent hit at the time, but it didn’t do anything for me then.  Coming off “Land of Confusion”, it’s a snoozer for me – it’s perpetually stuck in low gear and never goes anywhere interesting.  NEXT!

Anything She Does – OK, this is back to the faster paced song I like.  Leans more towards a pop sound like we get in the title track vs something slower / more prog.  But it dances the line well, it’s not firmly in either camp I think.  Some of Phil’s vocal delivery in the chorus reminds me of the title track again.  It’s not that song though.  Nice horn riff in the guitar solo area making for a different sound than usual.  I really liked this, mostly because of the faster pace.  That’s usually my jam, but when Genesis goes too slow, I can get bored.  That doesn’t happen here at all.  Good track.

Domino – The longest song on the album.  It’s 10:45, but it doesn’t feel like a slog like Tonight was earlier on the album.  It is however another one I find difficult to write about for some reason.  I do like the song, but I find it’s a bit hard for me to define a musical identity.  It does have a few too many 80’s production values on it.  Usually songs that I tap my foot to while listening for this project are something faster, this is not that.  It’s not slow, or even approaching ballad speed, but it’s not a fast song at all. I do like the overall landscape the aural presentation gives to the listener.  I do think this song works a little better using headphones.  When I was looking around for links for music videos for this album, I happened on the audio only track of this one and someone in the comments said it sounded better with headphones, so I tried it.  It seems more immersive there.  I don’t have headphone capability with my record player so I listened to it on Apple Music for this one . That could be partially why I liked it – the overall construction of the song is what worked for me – vs any single lyric or guitar riff or anything like that.  This make any sense?   It does however about 4:30 in change into a faster paced song, which I enjoyed better than the slower part.  The faster part doesn’t benefit from the headphones AS much, but I still feel headphones enhanced this song.  It does get a bit repetitive towards the end of the song, but I still enjoyed it.

Throwing it All Away – One of the other big singles from this album.  It probably too contributed to the “This sounds like a Phil Collins album” stuff.  It’s an OK song.  I don’t hate it, but this one didn’t do a ton for me back in the day when it was new either.   It’s just kind of “there”.  The video I quite liked though as it showed the band going through stuff that it takes to set up a concert, and what goes on behind the scenes – all just playing while the music is going.

The Brazilian – Here we get to one of my favorite deep cuts from any version of Genesis.  At the time the “This is a Phil Collins” album stuff was all over the place, I pointed to “The Brazilian” as evidence that it was NOT that.  This sounds to me like old school Genesis – like something they would have put out during the Gabriel era.  It’s an instrumental – no lyrics at all.  I don’t know how to describe this beyond what I said above.   VERY VERY enjoyable track, and if Land of Confusion wasn’t here, it would be my favorite song on the album.  Don’t mistake my lack of words for this song for how I feel.  It’s a total banger – adore the song.  There’s some guitar riffing towards the end that sounds rather unlike Genesis – it makes me wonder what it would sound like if Mike Rutherford attempted to make a hard rock song or album or something along those lines.

This album as I said in the intro is one I’ve had mixed thoughts on over the years – due to the “It’s a Phil Collins album” issue.  While I never FULLY bought into that, it has affected my thoughts on it over the years.  However, in 2025, I see it as a Genesis album that leans a bit into pop a bit too much, but still has several enjoyable songs.   Land of Confusion is a total banger, and is a top Genesis song of all time for me.  It isn’t my favorite album of theirs by far, but it’s got more enjoyable on it than not, so it’s a decent enough album.

This incarnation of Genesis has one more album under its belt – I’ll get to that a little later, as it’s starts with the letter “W”, and I’m still in “I” as I write this one. :)

Genesis is a band I never saw live – ever.  That’s a regret.  My wife has seen them (more on that later as it was for another album).  I did however see Phil Collins solo once – on the No Jacket Required tour.  My HS girlfriend at the time wanted to go.  I was indifferent, but the girlfriend wanted to go, so I went.  I don’t recall much about the gig in specific, but I have it filed in my mind as “good”.   I was living in Philly at the time, and Genesis played four nights in a row there on the Invisible Touch tour.  I didn’t go, I must have not cared about it more than I realized, cuz that was prime concert going time for me.  Oh well.  I would have gone to that final Genesis show – even with Phil just sitting in a chair the whole time, but they never came here on that last tour.  A musical regret.