Genesis: Calling All Stations : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

If nothing else, "... calling All Stations ..." answers the question: How do you make rock critics miss Phil Collins? Some veteran bands have been able to take on new personnel late in their careers and make credible, energetic new music, but this latter-day Genesis ain't one of them. That's no knock on the band's twentysomething singer, Scotsman Ray Wilson, whose pleasant if generic voice falls into the territory between original Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel and the more straight-ahead commercial approach of Collins. No, the ultimate problem here is the usual one: the dearth of decent material beyond a few pleasant if generic FM-rock tunes like "Shipwrecked" and "Not About Us." Call any station you want, gentlemen, the world doesn't need a Mike and the Mechanics artrock album.