Genesis - Seconds Out (CD 1994)

I never received this item despite paying immediately and sending many emails to the seller (under the name aylesfordlonghorn email neil@stirlingstuff.co.uk) who made various excuses and promises to send the CD immediately.
He used the illness of his wife as an excuse to delay the transfer so that I would show compassion and wait (which I did) promising to send the CD several times 'the next day'.
Naturally I understood and told him not to worry and to send it when things settled. I have found out now that he used this as a tactic to delay negative feedback until transfers were over the 60 day limit and that he has done this several times before. I find this dispiciable and would I recommend that he is removed from ebay permanently.

Firstly, I'd like to say that this is one of the best sounding live albums ever. I've heard that there was a little bit of post production shenanigans, overdubbing and the like, but it really doesn't matter - the sound quality is superb, it sounds live but doesn't have that awful "distant" feeling a lot of live albums seem to have. Steve Hackett's guitar in particular has a beautiful creamy tone - one of my favourite guitar sounds ever.

The album was a recording of a tour made to promote "Wind and Wuthering", and contains many tracks spanning the career of Genesis up to that point, including the Gabriel era. This of course means that Phil Collins will be attempting to sing some of these early pieces. I should admit straight away that I am no fan of the later "pop" incarnation of Genesis, and have no idea why Collin's would wish to give precedence to becoming some sort of Chris De Burgh style crooner as opposed to one of the world's premier rock drummers. However, I believe his performance here is nothing short of miraculous, and his interpretations of the earlier material is stunning. In particular, he sings "The Carpet Crawl" more like a ballad - which it is musically (I really like the way he repeats for emphasis on the line "the trick of the tail is the Stickleback"). And, dare I say it, I actually prefer his version of "Supper's Ready" too (the entire band puts in a more powerful performance here actually). Other highlights are "Squonk" (great Bass pedals), "Cinema Show" (fabulous ensemble playing), "Firth of Fith" (that fantastic guitar solo sounding even better than originally), and "Los Endos" (Collins and part-timer Thompson's drumming is out of this world).

I'm sure this would be difficult listening at first for those familiar to the original recordings, as they do sound quite different, mostly due to Collins contrasting approach - not as theatrical as Gabriel, he is more extrovert and down-to-Earth. What I would recommend though, is that those fans of the poppier, later material check this album out if they couldn't stomach the Gabriel recordings. Whatever, this is an album Genesis fans of either era can enjoy.