We Can't Dance

On 1991's WE CAN'T DANCE, Genesis hit the ground running with its first studio record in five years. Long past the theatrical prog-rock of the Gabriel years, the trio of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford had made the transition to MTV icons whose material was skewering toward a definitive baby-boomer audience. Despite the five-year layoff, Genesis managed to spin off five top-30 singles that dealt with the kinds of adult topics that usually don't wind up on normally youth-driven pop charts.
Some of the subject matter dealt with on these hits includes the hypocrisy of televangelists ("Jesus He Knows Me"), acidic parent-child relationships ("No Son of Mine"), and the disintegration of long-time relationships ("Never a Time"). Other topics dealt with on WE CAN'T DANCE include the unskilled workers who built England's railways in the 19th century ("Driving the Last Spike") and the homeless ("Tell Me Why"). There's also a requisite ballad for the adult contemporary market, "Hold on My Heart".|