With each successive trio album, Genesis inched closer and closer toward the pop-rock mainstream. On 1981’s underrated Abacab, the band struck a perfect balance of glossy hooks (“Man On The Corner”) and instrumental virtuosity (“Dodo/Lurker”), proving they could simultaneously satisfy both diehards and bandwagon-jumpers. But on the band’s self-titled 1983 LP, the pendulum swung a beat too far. Working again with gated-drum mastermind Hugh Padgham, Genesis cut every ounce of fat from their arrangements, streamlining their sound for maximum commercial appeal. That approach works wonders on the darkly soulful “That’s All” and funky “Just A Job To Do,” but for every career highlight (the masterful textural climb of “Mama”), there’s a slice of face-palm filler (the borderline-racist border-crossing sing-along “Illegal Alien,” the mopey ballad “Taking It All Too Hard”). “It’s Gonna Get Better,” Collins belted on the closer — and he was right: the altogether more assured Invisible Touch was waiting three years down the road. But on its own merits, Genesis marks the faceless low-point of the Collins era.