Much credit should go to Roger King, who played keyboards and co-produced this magnificent branch, to use Hackett's term, of the Genesis musical legacy. This is an expansion of the role he played in the first of these projects, the 1996 Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited. It's on that album that songs like "Waiting Room Only" and "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" were redone, which accounts for their absence on the second volume. Like Watcher, the frequent use of strings on Genesis Revisited II adds new majesty to the tracks.
In addition, the variety of the performers gives the songs more distinctive character and interpretations than the singular vocals of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins were intended to deliver. Further, the digital mastering allows for a more precise, clear distinction of all the instruments in their often sophisticated time changes and unexpected layers.
Will you forget the originals listening to the new versions? Probably not, and you shouldn't. At the same time, you don't need to be overly familiar, or even have ever heard, the classic albums to appreciate Hackett's re-imagining of Genesis music. Genesis Revisited II trumps and is a far superior experience to many a similar release of completely new progressive rock lyrics and melodies. It's a beautiful bounty of musicianship rooted in the past, but with branches reaching high into the surreal cosmos of Genesis.
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