Invisible Touch

AMAZON
Invisible Touch was by far Genesis's most commercially successful album to date, going six times platinum, and signalled the consolidation of Phil Collins's hold over the band's now slickly-modernised, though still potent, sound. The singles were even more successful than the album itself, with all five of them reaching the top five in the US--the first time that any band had achieved this. Stand-out tracks include "Tonight Tonight Tonight", "Land of Confusion" and "Anything She Does", with their intricate jungle rhythms and overflowing energy. Throughout, in fact, Collins's drumming is very inventive and energetic. Low points include the ballads "In Too Deep" and "Throwing It All Away", both examples of Collins dominating centre stage without using the talents of the other band members effectively. "Domino", a Tony Banks number, is the nearest material to old-style Genesis in structure, but incongruously features the most modern synthesised instrumentation and metronomic rhythms on the album, as if embarrassed by associations with the past. "The Brazilian", though, hearkens back to an old Genesis tradition by closing the album with an instrumental. --James Swift