In a small act of defence for Mr Collins if you think We Can't Dance is bad the Collinsless Calling All Stations is much worse.
Yes, I know the album well. Yes, most of it is terrible but I like "One Man's Fool" so the album ends on a positive note. "Small Talk" is virtually unlistenable, "Alien Afternoon" would be okay-ish but for the fact that it is a rehash of "Keep it Dark" from 16 years earlier and "Dividing Line", "Uncertain Weather" and "There Must be Some Other Way" are Banks at his most bombastic and generic. Hard to believe the bloke wrote "Island in the Darkness" for his 'Strictly, Inc." solo album at around the same time. That was one of his finest hours and in direct contrast to this sludge. (If you haven't heard "Island in the Darkness" go and listen to it on YouTube RIGHT NOW and, as you do so, imagine it being included on Calling All Stations instead of whichever three songs from that album you despise the most. Here is the link:
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I wouldn't mind hearing Phil cover something like "Shipwrecked" or "If That's What You Need" just to see if he could put some more life into those songs and it is the sort of commercial love ballad material that would appeal to him. I feel there is potential in them but it is buried deep. Of course, they could just turn out sappy in his hands... It is a pity he didn't try one of them during the "Live Over Europe" reunion album, just for something different.
Why, oh why, couldn't Banks and Rutherford have taken a leaf out of Gabriel's book and taken some risks and thrown in just a couple of avante-garde numbers? Even the otherwise uber-commercial Invisible Touch had the little synth experiment, "The Brazilian" to end on a strong note but that last vestige of experimentation had disappeared when the sludgy We Can't Dance and Calling All Stations were released.