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Calling All Stations is the fifteenth and final studio album by the English rock band Genesis. It was released on 2 September 1997 on Virgin Records and their only one with Ray Wilson on lead vocals. Following the departure of their longtime drummer and lead vocalist Phil Collins in March 1996, keyboardist Tony Banks and guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford decided to continue the band and collaborated on new material.

Calling All Stations showed initial commercial promise by reaching No. 2 in the UK, but it failed to gain significant commercial success elsewhere. In the US, it peaked at No. 54 in the US during its five weeks on the chart. Of the three singles excerpted from the album, "Congo" broke the top 40 in the UK. It achieved a top 40 placing in at least three other European countries. The album received negative reviews from critics, who chastised its lack of direction. A concert tour across Europe was completed in 1998; a US leg was cancelled after it failed to sell enough tickets. When it concluded Genesis remained inactive until Banks, Rutherford, and Collins reunited in 2006 for the Turn It On Again: The Tour.

Background
In November 1992, Genesis wrapped their We Can't Dance Tour in support of their previous album, We Can't Dance (1991). The group began a period of inactivity for each member to resume their solo careers, something that they had done since the early 1980s. After Collins had recorded his solo album Both Sides (1993) in early 1993, he reunited with keyboardist Tony Banks and bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford for a one-off Genesis appearance at a charity performance. Collins considered Both Sides as his most personal record since Face Value (1981), and felt increasingly uncomfortable singing a selection of Genesis hits on stage. He added: "For the first time I felt like an actor playing someone else's part", and wanted to leave the band after 25 years to pursue solo projects. For a while only Collins and group manager Tony Smith knew Collins's wishes, and Banks and Rutherford received the news at a subsequent lunch meeting with Smith present. Banks said that an official decision had been reached in the summer of 1995. On 28 March 1996, a press release from Hit & Run Music Publishing announced the news to the press.

Banks was surprised to learn that Rutherford was keen to continue Genesis as he had scored success with his band Mike + The Mechanics during this time. Feeling they had nothing to lose, the two began to collaborate on new material, which Banks recalled was an easy process and was faced with dropping strong songs from the album. They deemed the results strong enough to develop further, at which point they began the search for a replacement lead vocalist. In a December 1996 interview, Collins felt pleased that his former bandmates had decided to continue as he was concerned that his exit would result in the group's split. He wanted fans to keep an open mind, "as they did when I took over [on lead vocals]".

After a search, Genesis and their producer Nick Davis auditioned four potential lead singers at their recording studio named The Farm near Chiddingfold, Surrey. Two of them were selected through tapes that they had submitted; Banks said the remaining pair were chosen "because they suggested that they had other advantages about them that made them attractive", but later deemed them unsuitable. In the end, Banks had heard the vocals of 28-year-old Scottish singer Ray Wilson of the grunge band Stiltskin on their debut album The Mind's Eye (1994), and was impressed with his ability. As part of his audition Wilson sung along to Genesis songs with Collins's vocals removed; his first song was "No Son of Mine". His performance was strong enough for Banks to pick him as the new singer right away and praised the "natural darkness" of his singing. Stiltskin had split in 1996 which paved the way for Wilson to join Genesis. At the time of his arrival, the basis of the album had been written, but certain melody lines remained incomplete and the lyrics had yet to be worked on. Genesis officially announced the album's title and the addition of Wilson on their website in June 1997.

Recording
The album was recorded at The Farm between January and June 1997. Davis was enlisted as an engineer and shared production with Banks and Rutherford. It was recorded onto computer hard disk using RADAR, a digital multitrack recording system which gave the band greater flexibility in editing and arranging their songs. Banks thought this method benefitted the material on the album as it widened creative possibilities and made it easier to undo mistakes.

Rutherford plays acoustic and electric guitars and for the first time in a considerable amount of time for a Genesis album, bass pedals.

The drums on the album were shared between Nir Zidkyahu and Nick D'Virgilio.

The music videos for "Congo" and "Shipwrecked" featured Banks, Rutherford, Wilson, and session drummer Zidkyahu surrounded by extensive use of water imagery. "Not About Us", however featured just Banks, Rutherford, and Wilson.

Commercial performance
Calling All Stations became the first Genesis studio album not to hit number 1 since …And Then There Were Three… (number 3 in 1978) in the UK and was the first Genesis album since Selling England by the Pound (number 73 in 1974) to not crack the US Top 50.

While Calling All Stations sold well throughout Europe, it failed to find an audience in the United States, despite an elaborate publicity launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Critical reception
Steve Knopper reviewed the album in the Chicago Tribune, calling it "a formless blob of synth sounds" and asserting that new singer Ray Wilson has "no confidence or personality, let alone the vision to stave off his bandmates' meandering ideas". Both AllMusic and Rolling Stone commented that Ray Wilson was a fitting vocal replacement for Collins, but that the album is wholly lacking in good material. Both also commented on the album's odd mix of art rock and pop, saying that it failed to capture any of the likeable elements of either genre; Rolling Stone summarised it as "a Mike and the Mechanics artrock album". In 2014, Stevie Chick of The Guardian dismissed the album as "inexplicable".

2007 reissue
An SACD / DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and stereo mixes) was released in September 2007 and was re-released as a CD/DVD double disc in the US and Canada in November 2007.

Track listing
All songs written by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, except where noted.


 * Note: The CD liner notes state that track 7, "The Dividing Line", is 8:59.

Personnel
Genesis
 * Ray Wilson – lead vocals
 * Tony Banks – keyboards, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
 * Mike Rutherford – guitars, bass, backing vocals

Additional musicians
 * Nir Zidkyahu – drums on "Calling All Stations", "Congo", "Shipwrecked", "Alien Afternoon" (second half), "Not About Us", "The Dividing Line", "Uncertain Weather", "There Must Be Some Other Way", and "One Man's Fool", percussion
 * Nick D'Virgilio – drums on "Alien Afternoon" (first half), "If That's What You Need", "Uncertain Weather", and "Small Talk", percussion

Production
 * Nick Davis, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford – producers
 * Nick Davis – engineer
 * Ian Huffam – assistant engineer
 * Geoff Callingham, Mike Bowen – technical assistance
 * Dale Newman – general assistance
 * Wherefore ART? – sleeve design
 * Kevin Westernberg, Peter Robathan – photography