Genesis Revisited

As far as sound quality goes, the vinyl is superior to the CD's. The CD's are compressed and victims of the loudness war. I have the 4LP/2CD set and have compared both. For example, the dynamic range of The Musical Box on CD is 7. On vinyl it is 13.

I picked up the CD, and while I appreciate the difference and treatment from the original tracks, I don't pick up the emotion that the originals had. GRII is professionally subdued. For example, listen to Ripples original and in GRII. The female singer sounds like Marianne Faithful or is on valium. In the original, Phil's vocals soar and he (or Chester?) does rightful violence to the drums ala Bonham. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy GRII, but the spotless studio treatment wrings the life from the music.

Overall, I found the sound quality to be quite good, definitely above average. I'd give it a 7-8 out of ten overall. Some cuts even higher perhaps. Acoustic guitars in particular sound fabulous in this go round and alone worth the cost of admission for me. A lot of the busier material will be quite challenging to reproduce fully with great detail and full scale on many systems, as is often the case with prog rock recordings. Overall, recording quality as good or better than originals and other similar newer prog rock type recordings I have heard as a whole I would say. Some of the larger orchestral elements in some cuts were clearly mixed in at relatively low levels compared to what might have been done, so they were recessed and not what one would expect in a pure classical release (Hackett has some very fine sounding solo efforts in that genre), but still fairly well recorded and detailed, at least based on what I heard.

I found Hackett took a good bit more liberty (rightfully so) creating new versions/arrangements of his solo material redone here that did not make it into any Genesis albums like A Tower Struck Down and Please Don't Touch. Being more significantly different studio versions of the originals providing more new to digest, I was not able to assess these compared to the originals as well from a single listen.

I agree with Mapman's eview but I am a bit disappointed with the sound quality. Very murky sounding like most of Hackett's recent releases, but musically it rings all my bells as an old Genesis fan.

Disc came yesterday. Got to listen to a good bit last night.

In a nutshell: I loved it! THis time around Hackett has elected more to polish up these tunes for today's listener rather than attempt to embellish the originals with new arrangements or anyradical new musical concepts, though there are many subtle ones applied consistently throughout.

I think he has pretty much hit a home run this time around in terms of both polishing up these composition both for the newbie that might want a one shot exposure to some of Genesis's best material and the long time Genesis fan interested in what those pieces that were so original and essentially without precedence when conceived and recorded might sound like if recorded with much affection talent, and attention to detail today. Hackett has accomplished all those things in a manner that perhaps only he could.

I'd call this a monumental recording as things like this tend to go. Thank you Steve for retaining your affection for this fantastic and creative material, applying your great artistry and skill, and delivering a shiny new high quality version of this material that is true to the originals yet perhaps improved in certain ways.

In particular,I though the various vocalists did an exceptional job interpreting this material and delivering it without trying to mimic Peter Gabriel (or Phil Collins even). Also, Hackett was able to make his guitar parts stand out more clearly in the recording with perhaps a few modern updates and improvements he might have gleaned in his skills over the years, yet they do not really play much of a larger part in the whole than they did originally, or perhaps if so in a very subtle manner. Perfect! That's Steve Hackett on guitar!

IF you are a newbie looking to explore the classic art rock music of Genesis, this may be the best place to start available. If you are an old time Genesis fan, just buy this ($15 on Amazon for a double CD, great value) and bask in the glory of some of the best art rock of Genesis perhaps presented better than ever before.

Thanks for the news and the link. After listening to a few of the tracks on-line, I am struck by how they do not stray in any real creative way from the originals, they seem hollow, with less emotion, and less rich. To be fair, I should probably pick up the disc.

Am I that predictable?

o-o
\_/

Mapman
i knew anything with Steve Hackett you would finaly respond to my post
thanks
Al

The link:

GEnesis Revisited II free stream

I assume you mean the newly released revisted 2 album.

I have Hackett's original genesis revisited material from the 90's. A mixed bag and not his best material, but worthwhile for Genesis fans.

THis one has a complete redo of Supper's Ready and some interesting guest vocalists including Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson.

That's good enough for me. Just ordered it. Impressions to come....

Just came across this free preview stream for teh album.

Goosebumps on first listen....

My 4LP/2CD set has shipped from Amazon UK so I should get it in the next week or so. Can't wait!