Use your invisible touch to click on this link and get the heck outta here... Invisible Touch ... A Skill That Might Be Useful If I Thought About it Some More ... Hmmm ... Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 Well! By 1986, Phil Collins was already this huge 80s mega superstar with all sorts of radio hits down his sleeve ... And, who really knows why he wanted to go back three years later and record another Genesis album. By all accounts, they could have ended in 1983 with Genesis! (Ending the studio output of a band with its eponymous album? Now that's classy!) At any rate, I guess Phil thought that he had some type of loyalty thing going on, and he returned recording with his two old buddies. Unfortunately, the pop world had left Phil completely dazzle-eyed, and Invisible Touch is basically just an extension of his solo career. There are no more strange experiments that we've seen in Abacab or Genesis. However, I don't want it to seem like I'm downplaying Genesis for that. I do actually like Invisible Touch! However, the album is almost totally unambitious. I also recognize the fact that Phil Collins wasn't the only driving force behind the band. He also had Tony Banks and Michael Rutherford ... two talented guys ... so, the album certainly isn't without their influences, too. Tony Banks can't leave us alone and he delivers us a synth-instrumental with "The Brazilian," and he certainly dresses up a lot of these songs with his own little synthesizer powerhouse! Michael Rutherford is kind of drowned out by the sound sometimes, but we can still here some of his niiiice guitar solos at just the right times. Just the same, Genesis is waltzing too close to the adult contemporary line for comfort. My general impression of these songs is that they are enjoyable. That is what's keeping the overall album score rather high. In fact, it scored nearly as high as Abacab did ... but that's simply because there is no experimentation in Invisible Touch and therefore everything's a tad bit more accessible. Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 (The points Invisible Touch lost for not being daring enough, it made up for being more accessible.) Average Song Score: 8.1 (Well! This is a fairly decent set of pop tunes! ... It wanders a bit too far in the adult contemporary spectrum a few too many times, but it wasn't enough for me to feel like losing a lung about it...) Album Tilt: 7.5 (Overall, this is a pleasant and enjoyable album.) Artist Rating: 7.0 (Oh! Didn't Phil used to do pop experiments? He doesn't fail to insert some interesting things into Invisible Touch ... but I certainly wouldn't say that they're particularly *artistic*.) Track Reviews Invisible Touch 8/10 This doesn't start out with an all-too-awful 80s pop song. I guess there was no real reason for me to think this would start out with a bad 80s pop song. Definitely, though, this is as radio pop-bred as a golden retriever. It's pleasant, but it's entirely non-exhilarating or inventing like Genesis's previous pop efforts. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight 8.5/10 This one is more in the same spirit as the stuff in Genesis and Abacab. It has a strange, industrial beat to it and some interesting sounding drum machines going off all over the background. Good old Philly gives a nice-enough of a pop performance. So, yes, I like this one, kind of. It's nearly nine minutes long, and I pleasantly enjoy this one throughout. That's kind of an amazing accomplishment in its own right! Land of Confusion 9.5/10 Now, this 80s pop number is really nice! With a very catchy melody and some solid instrumentation work under its rug, I cannot help but liking "Land of Confusion" more than I like ice cream. (And, I do really like ice cream.) This was a nice one, Phil-boy! I only wished he could keep it up... In Too Deep 7.5/10 Oh, triple bugger! Does this song strike you as "generic 80s adult contemporary junk" or what? Phil! Seriously! The kids are listening to this! Ummm ... Well, I definitely will not say that "In Too Deep" is bad. Certainly, I've heard far worse clunkers in my day, because after all "In Too Deep" has a nice enough melody and sincere enough feeling. But why should I even bother with it? Anything She Does 7/10 Bleechhh! I am only barely able to tolerate this one! But I'm tryin' hard, and I can formulate at least a little bit of goodwill toward "Anything She Does." At least it doesn't have me scaling the walls or anything like that. But this truly beginning to enter into dismal 80s pop territory. The only thing that's really saving it is a nice touch in the arranging with the guitar-picking synth. Domino: In the Glow of the Night / The Last Domino 8/10 I wouldn't call this one is a dismal 80s pop song ... I would, however, call it utterly bloated! I'm not sure why but Phil seemed to want to bring Genesis back to their progressive roots while still keeping their 80s pop standards. It's an intriguing concept to be sure ... and this song isn't really that awful to listen to. But it's over 10 minutes long and it fails to prove to me why it should exist for so long. I guess I'm entertained by it, though. It's light entertainment. Throwing it All Away 7.5/10 More adult contemporary stuff! Aye aye aye aye! Eh... it's not too bad. Phil Collins ... you're an okay guy. Nobody hates you. I don't hate you. We love you. This pop song truly fails to exhilarate me ... and it probably even brings back memories to people who actually remember the 80s. Nevertheless, this isn't awful. The Brazilian 8.5/10 Whoah! Tony Banks and his little synthesizer powerhouses and textures really managed to come up with an entertaining instrumental! All of these strange sounds going off all over the place is just crazy! It's not perfect, but ... we love you too, Tony. And Michael. We love Michael. And Phil. Yes, we still love Phil. ... Oh ... I shouldn't take painkillers in the middle of writing music reviews. I think I'm going to bed now. If you would like to talk about your wind's wuthering, please leave your comments here.

All reviews are copyrighted by Michael Lawrence. He has arthritis of the brain.