Apocalypse 2

In the 80s and 90s, Genesis is producing more and more spaced in time; it is only six years after "We Can not Dance" that the group is returning surprise, always in trio but without Phil Collins, with this ambitious project but somewhat uneven.
This is Ray Wilson, officiating in a dark grunge combo, Stiltskin, replacing the vocals, with a much more veiled or slightly hoarse voice, which probably is not for nothing in the surprisingly dark tone of album. Two batsmen are also recruited Nir Zidkyahu (session musician which it remains the most important performance to date) and Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard drummer), who share the roles in different pieces.
D'Virgilio did a great job but sober, on four tracks, including the catchy "Uncertain Weather" and the melancholy "Shipwrecked", but especially N. Zidkyahu (who plays on three-quarters of the album) which illustrates vividly with such a complex game bushy, very expressive (close to that of Phil Collins), which literally propels compositions in which he plays and that are generally to be the best of the album, to Like the beautiful suite "There must be Reviews another way" (where the hoarse voice of R. Wilson also works wonders in a full interpretation of breath), especially in the extraordinary "The divided line" where he delivers a benefit as stunning and memorable (like Tony Banks with motifs of repetitive and radiant synthesizers).
Zydkyahu can also be heard in "Congo", tonic and efficient mini-tube that had happened on the air for a while, or in the second part of "Alien Afternoon" (funny syncopated ballad that extends slow desperate crescendo with change along the way drummer - process at least unusual - and one of the most successful titles on the disc), and finally in the latest track, "One man's fool" the diagram that can be termed " progressive "with its construction in two parts (two themes which follow) and its accelerating tempo increasing until the end.
Like the latter, many titles with "divine lengths" in this album, which never engender boredom, but also some ballads ("Not about us" and especially "If that's what you need") rather average or even the limit of filling, and "Small talk" which, while standing out from the rest by its light, shallow, does not show much interest in my opinion.
But what I especially reproach "Calling All Stations" is a general color a little too monochrome, and especially a very thick batter sound, a little heavy production (with ever since as ubiquitous synthesizers that "they are no more than three "but also guitars much more often than in the past incisors, the fort played drums, and suddenly comes to my mind" Ever "IQ released four years earlier), why I give it three stars and not four ...
An album very respectable anyway, which is far from a shipwreck, contrary to what have said the gossips who hoped that the trio had, after this symbolic gesture, disappeared for good (for that matter, is this really the case ??).