Love or loathe his music, there’s no doubt that Phil Collins is an adept songwriter. With his names to hits such as ‘In the Air Tonight’, ‘Against All Odds’ and ‘Sussudio’, the English musician is one of the world’s best-selling artists, a position that clearly demonstrates his ability to appeal to the masses through the medium of song.
While Collins is best known for the string of solo hits that he released in the 1980s, not to mention the classic duet ‘Easy Lover’ with Earth, Wind and Fire singer Philip Bailey, prior to carving out a solo career that fused blue-eyed soul with pop music, he had found fame as drummer and later lead singer of prog-rock titans, Genesis.
Another divisive band due to the often fantastical and complex nature of their songs – which critics often conflate with pure pretentiousness – Genesis have a very distinctive sound, and are one of the outfits most closely associated with the prog genre, and the form at its absolute finest to those who abide.
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As Genesis had many different chapters, including the one fronted by Peter Gabriel and the latter stages without Phil Collins, it is tough for fans to determine what their finest track is. While hardcore followers would claim it to be a deep cut from their early work with Gabriel and more casual ones would probably go to the political 1986 hit ‘Land of Confusion’, the band members themselves, including Collins, also have their own shouts.
Collins believes that ‘Invisible Touch’, the title track of the 1986 album that boasted ‘Land of Confusion’, is Genesis’ finest song. That’s right, he believes it tops fan favourites such as ‘Watcher of the Skies’ and ‘I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)’.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2014, Collins said: “‘Invisible Touch’ is my favourite Genesis song and it came more or less out of nowhere. We would arrive in the studio every day and just start playing. One day Mike Rutherford played a riff on the guitar, with an echo, and I suddenly sang: ‘She seems to have an invisible touch – yeah!’ It came into my head fully formed.”
Collins also explained that the track made him realise that Genesis’ approach was akin to that of the jazz genre, with the improvisational aspects making the track tick. “We weren’t afraid to make lousy noises,” he explained. “We knew each other well: if I started singing crap, no one would say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ Still, there was a good percentage of crap.”
