December 8, 1999

Genesis : Carpet crawlers

They don't write 'em like that any more. They write them like [B]Phil bloody Collins[/B] instead.

They wouldn't let it lie, would they? They couldn't just slip Genesis' greatest hits album into the Christmas schedule without making the inevitable '99 remix' to promote it. Although it's not exactly a remix as such. It's a song from 1974, complete with original vocalist Peter Gabriel, but rerecorded with an awful cod-ethnic rhythm behind it and horrible Sunny Delight production. It takes the original, from the ancient but quite-splendid-in-parts-actually, concept album 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway', and covers it in syrup, which is presumably the only way it could be resurrected for Genesis' modern audience.

This is one of only two Genesis tunes from the Gabriel era included on the compilation, a rewriting of history that is breathtaking in its Stalinist efficiency. It's like lawnmowers on the head never happened. But at least we have the incomparable treat of hearing those glorious 1974 lyrical flights of fancy once again.

"Mild men and supermen are held in kryptonite/And the wise and foolish virgins giggle with their bodies glowing white/Through the door a harvest feast is lit by candlelight". They don't write 'em like that any more. They write them like Phil bloody Collins instead.

Johnny Cigarettes