Album dossier / 1986

Invisible Touch

Genesis · Pop Rock/Art Rock

After each member spent 1984-85 on solo projects (Phil Collins' No Jacket Required, Mike Rutherford's Mike + The Mechanics, Tony Banks' Soundtracks), Genesis reconvened at The Farm studio in Chiddingfold, Surrey in October 1985 with returning producer/engineer Hugh Padgham to write and record entirely through group improvisation, with no pre-written material used, exactly as on their 1983 self-titled album. The result made Genesis the first band and first foreign act to land five singles from one album in the US Billboard Hot 100 top five, with the title track becoming their only US #1 single, though its poppier direction and closeness to Collins' solo sound split critics. The title track itself was born mid-session: the band was actually working on a different song, 'The Last Domino,' when Rutherford began an improvised, echo-drenched guitar riff and Collins responded on the spot with the line 'She seems to have an invisible touch' -- the whole song grew out of that single ad-libbed moment. Padgham, who had engineered Genesis since Abacab (1981) and produced Collins' own hits, brought the same 'gated reverb' drum sound he pioneered on Peter Gabriel's third album and Collins' 'In the Air Tonight' to the sessions.