Platinum Collection

Platinum Collection is a career-spanning box set by British veteran progressive rock/pop rock band Genesis. It was released in 2004 in the UK and one year later in North America.

The set consists of three CDs that overlook Genesis' career from their formative period with Peter Gabriel and Anthony Phillips, continuing through their period with Phil Collins as lead singer, to their most recent recordings with Ray Wilson as frontman. As with 1998's Genesis Archive 1967–75, this collection is mostly sequenced in reverse chronological order (apart from the fact that ...Calling All Stations...' title track is at the end of the first disc) for the purpose of providing precedence to the newer material. The majority of the tracks were also remixed by studio collaborator Nick Davis.

Featuring songs from every studio album (not including their 1969 debut From Genesis to Revelation) from 1970's Trespass to 1997's ...Calling All Stations..., Platinum Collection stands as the most comprehensive Genesis retrospective available. Upon its release, it reached #21 in the UK and #100 in the US.

The cover features pictures used on the albums Nursery Cryme (1971), Foxtrot (1972), A Trick of the Tail (1976), Duke (1980), Invisible Touch (1986) and We Can't Dance (1991). (wiki)

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by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Platinum Collection is a triple-disc covering the biggest hits and anthems from Genesis' career. Not a bad idea for a set, especially because it does contain the relatively rare non-LP single "Paperlate," but it's not necessarily executed as well as it could be. First off, there are the inevitable omissions, highlighted by such Genesis standards as "Man on the Corner" and "No Reply at All," but also extending to such smaller '80s hits as "Just a Job to Do" and "Anything She Does," not to mention various album tracks, particularly from the Peter Gabriel era. Nevertheless, Platinum Collection handles the Gabriel years better than 1999's Turn It on Again: The Hits, primarily because it has the space to stretch out and serve up a full disc of early Genesis, and while "Watcher of the Skies" is missed, it's hard to argue with any Gabriel comp that includes "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," "Counting out Time," "Carpet Crawlers," "Firth of Fifth," "The Musical Box," "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)," and a full-length "Supper's Ready." Actually, that's not entirely true -- there is one complaint that can be lodged against the Gabriel disc and that can be lodged against Platinum Collection as a whole: it's sequenced in reverse chronological order (with the notable exception of the post-Phil Collins cut "Calling All Sections" being tucked away at the end of the first disc, since there's absolutely no way that even the most devoted Genesis fan would stick with rest of the comp if it began with that tune). While it's not a fatal blow to the value of the compilation -- this does, after all, contain most of the songs casual fans would want in one handy little set -- starting with We Can't Dance and slowly rolling back over the years makes for some uneasy listening, since the reverse order not only prevents the album from gaining momentum, it doesn't provide any new insights to the band's work, the way that Jimmy Page's non-chronological sequencing on the Led Zeppelin box did. If the entire set was flipped around, beginning with "The Knife" and ending with "No Son of Mine," it would be a better listen as an album, but as a clearing-house for most, but not all, of the big Genesis songs, Platinum Collection is worthwhile for casual fans.