Man, it's been awhile since I've given it a listen in all fairness but more than anything I remember every song felt like it was always at least 1 minute too long. Which is probably ironic being posted in a prog rock subreddit, but it felt like Pop-Rock era Genesis, with the length of Prog Genesis, but none of the weird song structure or unique sounds to back it up.
I enjoy this album, and love quite a lot of it. I was hoping they would make a second album together, and I just saw them do "Domino" on the '97 tour, and they were awesome. Ray was spectacular, a great voice with a different but complementary timbre. And "Uncertain Weather" is one of my favourite Genesis tracks ever.
Another album, and that line-up woulda killed it. CAS as it is, though, is very good - one or two songs I can do without; everything else is either good, excellent, or sublime.
It’s a VERY good album that would probably have been appreciated more if it was labeled as a Banks/Rutherford project rather than a Genesis album.
And that’s unfair considering that Tony and Mike were the only two founding members remaining after Peter left.
Good as Mike & Tony are, Phil was the trio's best *lyricist*, and the album suffered without his input, NTM the fact that Ray was a complete stranger to the fans. That said, I do enjoy about half the songs on the record, although "Not About Us" was far too grunge-sounding, and should never have been a single.
The album is great. Fair enough if you don't like the different style but if you pay attention, it has a distinct Genesis sound; it's just from a different era of music with a different singer and no influence from Phil. That was apparently too much for fans to swallow at the time. As long as you're not an elitist snob who thinks Genesis should have kept releasing Foxtrots over and over again.
The problem was they lost all but the hardest of hard core fans when CAS was released, especially in the US. They went from playing stadiums and big arenas on the WCD tour to having to cancel the US leg of the CAS tour due to poor ticket sales.
In addition to losing Phil the reality was that music had changed dramatically during the period of time between WCD and CAS. In some ways I think WCD bucked emerging music trends in terms of sales. Part of that was still having PC in the band.
So at the time it came out I was just happy they were going to still try to move forward without Phil. I listened to it a lot and found that I really enjoyed most of it, and the songs I liked a little less were still listenable and at least as good to me as some of the We Can’t Dance tracks. Ultimately I would have loved to see a second album where Ray was more comfortable being in the band and maybe could have had more writing influence. I was already a Stiltskin fan when they announced he was going to sing for them so I was all about that.
When I was first getting into genesis, i saw that this was really disliked and i couldn't get it on spotify so i was intrigued. I am the kind of person who likes band's less well liked stuff (i like endless river by pink floyd and MOTS by Coldplay).
When it showed up on spotify i immediately gave it a listen and loved it. There are some excellent pieces on it and i love ray wilson's voice. One i go back to fairly regularly
Ray got a pretty raw deal. I thought they should’ve done a low-key tour with him doing the classics, as well as road testing the new songs. It wasn’t what they’d done before, but it could have benefited CAS, and introduced him to the fans.
In no way is it a bad album. For an up and coming group, it would’ve been a respectable offering, but it unfortunately missed the mark as a Genesis album.
It's a good album! I love the dark pop sound .. classic Genesis! And Ray's voice is perfect for it. The lyrics and arrangements could have used some workshopping, but I always enjoy listening to it when I do.
Genuinely confused (not sassing you): are you arguing that some songs are better than others because they only fade out at the end? As opposed to songs that end on a fade out at the not-end? What do you mean?
No argument about 'Los Endos' being superior live vs. studio.
I think there's a consensus that the fades on CAS happen at odd points, where you feel like the song could still continue. It's not a feeling of "the track has run its course".
Do you have a favorite Tony album? So far I’ve only given the first two a good listen. I’ve practically memorized The Fugitive, friggin amazing writing on there.
I love the Fugitive and it’s probably my favorite because he sings too. I’m very partial to Bankstatment- it was so hard for me to get a copy in the 90s! I love Still.
It’s got some good spots, but I’d say it’s mid. Not the best, not the worst, it is what it is.
Wilson had potential, has they made another album with him, I imagine it would’ve been better.
I went from loving this album when it was released, to being lukewarm to it, and finally coming around to loving it again. I think it's a decent album, but maybe too long and too many weird fade outs. It would have been better if they had made it 45-50 minutes instead of almost 80 minutes long.
I used to give it a pass but at this point I like the title track to a degree and I dig dividing line, but that's it.
And whomever was responsible for Congo should be shipwrecked. Especially the guy who decided that should be a single. What the actual fuck. It's a terrible b-side at best. Sounds like a discarded PG cut.
It's one of my favourites! I have grown up in that alt rock/post grunge singing style so Ray Wilson was never a turn off for me when I was getting into Genesis which lead me to not disregarding what I think to be the masterpiece that it is.
I’m sorry but I was wracking my brain to come up with what CAS even stood for. I had to look at references to track titles in the thread to get to it.
I’m sorry, I’m not trolling here, it’s just my opinion — I don’t consider Calling All Stations part of the Genesis discography. It was a bizarre side project six years after We Can’t Dance that went sideways.
Let the downvoting begin.
I enjoy most of this album! Alien Afternoon, The Dividing Line, Calling All Stations, Congo, and One Man's Fool are my favorites.
However, I remember lending the CD to my mom to listen to, and I asked her why she thought it didn't do well, as it still sounds like Genesis to me. She said it sounded dated. I hadn't thought about it, but she was kind of right. But then, ALL their albums sound dated if you think about it. Invisible Touch sounds like the mid to late 80s, Foxtrot is early 70s, and on and on. But it's ok. They will always be my favorite band, and their music will always be timeless in my heart.❤️
Good album with mediocre drumming. Great bands need great drummers, Tony & Mike chose two session guys that couldn’t fill up Phil’s enormous input. Bad for them they refused to hire Chester. Ray’s singing saved the album.
There are not a lot of stinkers in that album. I wish they trimmed some songs a bit, and swapped songs like If That's what you Need for Anything Now for example. I was 9 when this album came out so to me this WAS Genesis, and I only listened to the rest of the discography way after, that might be why I'm quite nostalgic about it.
I have always enjoyed this album.
CAS slaps. That is all.
Man, it's been awhile since I've given it a listen in all fairness but more than anything I remember every song felt like it was always at least 1 minute too long. Which is probably ironic being posted in a prog rock subreddit, but it felt like Pop-Rock era Genesis, with the length of Prog Genesis, but none of the weird song structure or unique sounds to back it up.
I agree. There needs to be some variation or progression within the song to justify the song length, not a bunch of repetition.
This is a great explanation of CAS.
I enjoy this album, and love quite a lot of it. I was hoping they would make a second album together, and I just saw them do "Domino" on the '97 tour, and they were awesome. Ray was spectacular, a great voice with a different but complementary timbre. And "Uncertain Weather" is one of my favourite Genesis tracks ever. Another album, and that line-up woulda killed it. CAS as it is, though, is very good - one or two songs I can do without; everything else is either good, excellent, or sublime.
It’s a VERY good album that would probably have been appreciated more if it was labeled as a Banks/Rutherford project rather than a Genesis album. And that’s unfair considering that Tony and Mike were the only two founding members remaining after Peter left.
Good as Mike & Tony are, Phil was the trio's best *lyricist*, and the album suffered without his input, NTM the fact that Ray was a complete stranger to the fans. That said, I do enjoy about half the songs on the record, although "Not About Us" was far too grunge-sounding, and should never have been a single.
The album is great. Fair enough if you don't like the different style but if you pay attention, it has a distinct Genesis sound; it's just from a different era of music with a different singer and no influence from Phil. That was apparently too much for fans to swallow at the time. As long as you're not an elitist snob who thinks Genesis should have kept releasing Foxtrots over and over again.
The problem was they lost all but the hardest of hard core fans when CAS was released, especially in the US. They went from playing stadiums and big arenas on the WCD tour to having to cancel the US leg of the CAS tour due to poor ticket sales.
Over 4 million copies of WCD sold in the USA By contrast, CAS only sold 110,000 copies in the USA.
In addition to losing Phil the reality was that music had changed dramatically during the period of time between WCD and CAS. In some ways I think WCD bucked emerging music trends in terms of sales. Part of that was still having PC in the band.
So at the time it came out I was just happy they were going to still try to move forward without Phil. I listened to it a lot and found that I really enjoyed most of it, and the songs I liked a little less were still listenable and at least as good to me as some of the We Can’t Dance tracks. Ultimately I would have loved to see a second album where Ray was more comfortable being in the band and maybe could have had more writing influence. I was already a Stiltskin fan when they announced he was going to sing for them so I was all about that.
When I was first getting into genesis, i saw that this was really disliked and i couldn't get it on spotify so i was intrigued. I am the kind of person who likes band's less well liked stuff (i like endless river by pink floyd and MOTS by Coldplay). When it showed up on spotify i immediately gave it a listen and loved it. There are some excellent pieces on it and i love ray wilson's voice. One i go back to fairly regularly
Ray got a pretty raw deal. I thought they should’ve done a low-key tour with him doing the classics, as well as road testing the new songs. It wasn’t what they’d done before, but it could have benefited CAS, and introduced him to the fans. In no way is it a bad album. For an up and coming group, it would’ve been a respectable offering, but it unfortunately missed the mark as a Genesis album.
It's a good album! I love the dark pop sound .. classic Genesis! And Ray's voice is perfect for it. The lyrics and arrangements could have used some workshopping, but I always enjoy listening to it when I do.
Nah, no love from me, that's a bridge too far. Album shoulda never happened.
Agreed. I listened once and felt bored. Most of it is forgettable.
Stylistically, it's nothing I'd ever been interested in or liked. It just sounded like generic rock, and rather pointless, too.
The fade outs are unacceptable.
[56% of **all** Genesis songs fade out.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genesis/s/gsRrgBjcoS)
[удалено]
Genuinely confused (not sassing you): are you arguing that some songs are better than others because they only fade out at the end? As opposed to songs that end on a fade out at the not-end? What do you mean? No argument about 'Los Endos' being superior live vs. studio.
I think there's a consensus that the fades on CAS happen at odd points, where you feel like the song could still continue. It's not a feeling of "the track has run its course".
That is NOT the point. ALL of the songs on CAS fade out abruptly and at terrible moments. It's like they gave up on every song.
I like Congo, but always felt it the fade out was way too quick on it.
Dividing Line doesn’t fade out.
And?
And so you’re wrong.
And?
So take the L and stop being a child on Reddit.
The songs fade out at the worst moments. Fact!
You're certainly entitled to that opinion.
I’ve always enjoyed it, reminds me of Tony’s solo albums.
Do you have a favorite Tony album? So far I’ve only given the first two a good listen. I’ve practically memorized The Fugitive, friggin amazing writing on there.
I love the Fugitive and it’s probably my favorite because he sings too. I’m very partial to Bankstatment- it was so hard for me to get a copy in the 90s! I love Still.
“Shitbricked!” Always makes me laugh. But I do love this album.
Yea that one’s a clunker for me too. Skip
It’s got some good spots, but I’d say it’s mid. Not the best, not the worst, it is what it is. Wilson had potential, has they made another album with him, I imagine it would’ve been better.
I went from loving this album when it was released, to being lukewarm to it, and finally coming around to loving it again. I think it's a decent album, but maybe too long and too many weird fade outs. It would have been better if they had made it 45-50 minutes instead of almost 80 minutes long.
If it had been released as if it was Spock's Beard or Flower Kings instead of Genesis it would get more positive attention.
I used to give it a pass but at this point I like the title track to a degree and I dig dividing line, but that's it. And whomever was responsible for Congo should be shipwrecked. Especially the guy who decided that should be a single. What the actual fuck. It's a terrible b-side at best. Sounds like a discarded PG cut.
It is, imho, much better than We Can't Dance.
It's one of my favourites! I have grown up in that alt rock/post grunge singing style so Ray Wilson was never a turn off for me when I was getting into Genesis which lead me to not disregarding what I think to be the masterpiece that it is.
I’m sorry but I was wracking my brain to come up with what CAS even stood for. I had to look at references to track titles in the thread to get to it. I’m sorry, I’m not trolling here, it’s just my opinion — I don’t consider Calling All Stations part of the Genesis discography. It was a bizarre side project six years after We Can’t Dance that went sideways. Let the downvoting begin.
I enjoy most of this album! Alien Afternoon, The Dividing Line, Calling All Stations, Congo, and One Man's Fool are my favorites. However, I remember lending the CD to my mom to listen to, and I asked her why she thought it didn't do well, as it still sounds like Genesis to me. She said it sounded dated. I hadn't thought about it, but she was kind of right. But then, ALL their albums sound dated if you think about it. Invisible Touch sounds like the mid to late 80s, Foxtrot is early 70s, and on and on. But it's ok. They will always be my favorite band, and their music will always be timeless in my heart.❤️
Good album with mediocre drumming. Great bands need great drummers, Tony & Mike chose two session guys that couldn’t fill up Phil’s enormous input. Bad for them they refused to hire Chester. Ray’s singing saved the album.
What was the reasoning behind not hiring Chester, I wonder?
r/genesiscirclejerk probably thinks I'm joking, but I do actually, legitimately love Alien Afternoon. I like CAS more than Invisible Touch or Abacab.
There are not a lot of stinkers in that album. I wish they trimmed some songs a bit, and swapped songs like If That's what you Need for Anything Now for example. I was 9 when this album came out so to me this WAS Genesis, and I only listened to the rest of the discography way after, that might be why I'm quite nostalgic about it.