Turn It On Again - The Hits (1999)
1.Turn It On Again
2.Invisible Touch
3.Mama
4.Land of Confusion
5.I Can't Dance
6.Follow You Follow Me
7.Hold On My Heart
8.Abacab
9.I Know What I Like
10.No Son Of Mine
11.Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
12.In Too Deep
13.Congo
14.Jesus He Knows Me
15.That's All
16.Misunderstanding
17.Throwing It All Away
18.The Carpet Crawlers 99
IIt seems faintly astonishing that a band as enduring—and as frequently transformed—as Genesis should have waited until the twilight of their career to release a proper greatest hits compilation. Stranger still is the tracklist itself: of the eighteen songs included here, no fewer than nine hail from just two albums. But then, this has never been a band prone to predictable arcs. From art-rock curio to pop behemoth, Genesis spent decades rewriting their own rulebook. So it makes a peculiar kind of sense that their first comprehensive singles collection would be both generous in scope and oddly lopsided in execution.
To be fair, Turn It On Again: The Hits is precisely what it claims to be. No deeper cuts, no unreleased live staples—just the songs that charted, got airplay, and burrowed their way into the public consciousness. For the casual listener, it's ideal. The inclusion of That's All—the band's first true Top Ten breakthrough in 1983—serves as a reminder that commercial success came surprisingly late in their story. Before that, they were a name whispered in progressive circles, not shouted from car radios.
Sonically, it’s a sleek package. At over seventy-five minutes and spanning eighteen tracks, the collection is impressively full. Longer numbers like Tonight, Tonight, Tonight and Abacab have been trimmed to their single edits—a practical, if mildly regrettable, decision that ensures maximum track inclusion. For completists, it may rankle; for new listeners, it’s unlikely to matter.
There are curiosities, of course. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), their first-ever UK hit from 1973, sounds positively ancient in this context—quaint, almost whimsical, and entirely out of step with the later material that surrounds it. And then there’s Congo, plucked from the ill-fated Calling All Stations and perhaps best left in the vault. It’s the only real misstep here: an inclusion that seems born of obligation rather than merit. The song, like the album it hails from, is Genesis in name only.
Still, there are moments of grace. Chief among them is the newly recorded version of The Carpet Crawlers, lovingly reimagined with both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins sharing vocal duties—a rare and welcome moment of unity from a band whose history is often defined by departures. The track itself, originally buried in The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, is a haunting piece of songwriting and a reminder of the band’s earlier lyrical ambition. For many listeners, it will be the quiet revelation of the entire compilation.
Ultimately, Turn It On Again: The Hits does exactly what it’s meant to. It introduces the uninitiated, satisfies the radio crowd, and lays out, in broad strokes, the transformation of Genesis from progressive auteurs to global pop titans. But for a deeper appreciation of the band’s capabilities, one must look elsewhere—preferably to Seconds Out or Three Sides Live, where the longer, stranger, and more rewarding pieces still roam free.
As a gateway, this is more than serviceable. As a legacy, it’s only the surface.
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