Line #76 Music/WeCantDance


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/we_cant_dance.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Do you believe in God? 'Cos that's what I'm selling!"'']]
3	->''I gave everything that they wanted''\
4	''But still they wanted more''\
5	''We sweat and we toiled''\
6	''Good men lost their lives''\
7	''I don't think they knew what for''\
8	\
9	''I sold them my heart''\
10	''I sold them my soul''\
11	''I gave everything I had''\
12	''Ah, but they couldn't break my spirit''\
13	''My dignity fought back''\
14	''(fight back)''\
15	''(just fight back)''
16	-->'''"Driving the Last Spike"'''
17
18	''We Can't Dance'' is the fourteenth studio album by English ProgressiveRock-turned-pop rock band Music/{{Genesis\|Band}}, released in 28 October 1991 by Creator/VirginRecords in the United Kingdom and Creator/AtlanticRecords in the United States. Their last album with frontman Music/PhilCollins and consequently the last to feature the most recognizable three-man contingent of Collins, [[Music/MikeAndTheMechanics Mike Rutherford]], and Music/TonyBanks, the album marked an end to the band's four-year hiatus that followed the end of their successful ''Music/InvisibleTouch'' tour in 1987, during which time the trio returned to focusing on their individual solo/side projects, with Collins notably releasing his blockbuster success ''Music/ButSeriously'' during the interim. With Collins' success as a solo artist more than well-established, Rutherford and Banks fully expected Collins to ditch the group to focus on his own work, only for Collins to stick around for another album as part of Genesis.
19
20	Musically, ''We Can't Dance'' continues the pop rock style that Genesis had been finding success with throughout the previous decade, but strips down the production to offer a better balance between their pop and prog elements. Notably, the thumping, twinkling synths that were omnipresent throughout ''Invisible Touch'' are replaced with more subtle, softer synth pads more reminiscent of Banks' keyboard work when Genesis was fronted by Music/PeterGabriel. The album also leans more closely into the prog side of Genesis' sound, with tracks like "No Son of Mine", "Driving the Last Spike", and "Fading Lights" demonstrating that the band were still willing to hold onto their roots, though still accentuated with a number of more pop-friendly songs like the anti-televangelist satire "Jesus He Knows Me" and the crooning ballad "Hold on My Heart".
21
22	''We Can't Dance'' was still a huge commercial success for Genesis, topping the charts in the UK, Australia, and several other European nations; it reached #4 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart in the US. It was certified quintuple-platinum in the UK and quadruple-platinum in the US. ''We Can't Dance'' was furthermore supported by a lengthy eponymous tour spanning 78 shows between 1992 and 1993, selling out arenas and stadiums worldwide. The songs from this tour were later compiled on the live albums ''The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts'' and ''The Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs'', respectively released in 1992 and 1993 (with the former also including tracks from the ''Invisible Touch'' tour).
23
24	''We Can't Dance'' was supported by six singles: "No Son of Mine", "I Can't Dance", "Hold on My Heart", "Jesus He Knows Me", "Never a Time", and "Tell Me Why". Only one of those broke the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "I Can't Dance" (#7). That matched its highest position in the UK, where "No Son of Mine" beat it at #6. "I Can't Dance" was nominated for the Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals Grammy in 1993, though ultimately lost to Music/CelineDion & Peabo Bryson's cover of "WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast".
25
26	----
27	!!Tracklist:
28	# "No Son of Mine" (6:41)
29	# "Jesus He Knows Me" (4:23)
30	# "Driving the Last Spike" (10:10)
31	# "I Can't Dance" (4:04)
32	# "Never a Time" (3:52)
33	# "Dreaming While You Sleep" (7:21)
34	# "Tell Me Why" (5:00)
35	# "Living Forever" (5:42)
36	# "Hold on My Heart" (4:40)
37	# "Way of the World" (5:40)
38	# "Since I Lost You" (4:10)
39	# "Fading Lights" (10:27)
40
41	----
42	!!Principal Members:
43
44	* Music/TonyBanks – keyboards, synth bass
45	* Music/PhilCollins – drums, lead vocals, percussion
46	* Mike Rutherford – guitars, bass guitar
47
48	----
49	!!''"We both know we've troped here before"''
50	* AccidentalMurder: "Dreaming While You Sleep" covers the narrator accidentally running over a woman in the rain, and spending the rest of his life hiding the fact that he was the one responsible, all the while knowing that it's become a high-profile topic in the news and that even if he does manage to take the secret to the grave, it'll haunt him constantly.
51	* AlbumTitleDrop: Played with; "I Can't Dance" features several {{title drop}}s for the song itself, but it doesn't outright say "''we'' can't dance".
52	* BookEnds: The closing track, "Fading Lights", quotes portions of the melody to the opening track, "No Son of Mine".
53	* {{Bowdlerize}}: The edited version of the "Jesus He Knows Me" video removes the scenes showing Mike Rutherford's character being caught having sexual relations with people of both sexes and alters the scene where Phil sings in a pool with several bikini-clad women. This version is the only one available on the band's Website/YouTube channel.
54	* CallingTheYoungManOut: "[[IHaveNoSon No Son of Mine]]" tells the story of a boy who runs away from home, and after some consideration attempts to return, only to be berated by his abusive father. Phil Collins has said in interviews that the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse.
55	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover and liner notes feature a variety of lavish watercolor paintings by Felicity Roma Bowers, with the ones in the liner notes corresponding to individual songs. By pure coincidence, former frontman Music/PeterGabriel would pull a similar stunt with ''Music/{{Us}}'' the year after this album and ''Music/{{Up\|PeterGabrielAlbum}}'' a decade after that, though in those cases the song art was each done by a different artist. For all three albums the song art formed the basis for the cover art of each album's associated singles (though ''Up'' dropped the gimmick for the single releases of "More Than This" and "Darkness").
56	* EpicRocking:
57	** "No Son of Mine", "Driving the Last Spike", "Dreaming While You Sleep", and "Fading Lights" all surpass the six-minute mark and then some.
58	** The album also deserves mention: at 71 and a half minutes, it holds the position of being Genesis' longest studio album since the 94-minute ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway'' 17 years prior and acts as their second-longest studio album overall. The whole thing is just a hair's length from maxing out CD copies, and vinyl releases ended up marking Genesis' first double-LP studio album since the aforementioned ''Lamb''.
59	* EyeTwitch: Phil prominently gives his televangelist character this trait in the video for "Jesus He Knows Me", signalling to audience that under his highly polished surface he is a rather unhinged collection of barely suppressed vices.
60	* FellAsleepDriving: "Dreaming While You Sleep" revolves around a man who fatally runs over a woman thanks to him drifting "in and out of sleep" while at the wheel. Since he's still extremely tired when he hits her, he impulsively keeps driving, resulting in him being dogged with guilt for the rest of his life.
61	* GayCruising: One of the televangelists (portrayed by Mike) is depicted being caught in the act of doing this in the uncensored "Jesus He Knows Me" video, with paparazzi photographing him with another man in a public restroom.
62	* GreedyTelevangelist: "Jesus He Knows Me" is a song criticizing televangelists for their extravagant lifestyles and hypocrisy. The music video shows the band dressed like famous televangelists living in luxury, while the lyrics show insistence in being right by AppealToAuthority.
63	* GriefSong: "Since I Lost You" is one for Connor Clapton, Music/EricClapton's four-year-old son, who fell to his death earlier in the year.
64	* HypocriticalSinging: "Jesus He Knows Me" is about an EgocentricallyReligious televangelist who says "Won't find me practicing what I'm preaching/Won't find me making no sacrifice", as well as a verse about how "I believe in family" while cheating on his wife with both men and women. Later, there's "I Can't Dance", a very catchy song about how the protagonist has no musical talent.
65	* IHaveNoSon: "No Son of Mine", natch.
66	* InsultBackfire: In the video for "Jesus He Knows Me", Phil Collins wears a suit and wig and affects a voice similar to that of American televangelist Ernest Angley, making him a specific target for the song's skewering of televangelism in general. Collins revealed in his appearance on ''Series/Room101'' that Angley was apparently flattered by his "portrayal".
67	* InTheStyleOf:
68	** "I Can't Dance" is Collins' attempt at mimicking the vocal style of Fine Young Cannibals frontman Roland Gift.
69	** The historical drama of "Driving the Last Spike" doesn't really echo any Gabriel-era sounds or themes, except for maybe its longer length compared to other songs on ''We Can't Dance'' and a couple of time changes, but the song certainly wouldn't look out of place if it had appeared on 1978's ''...And Then There Were Three....'' On the other hand, the lengthy instrumental midsection of "Fading Lights" could be considered Genesis' re-imagining of their '70s symphonic prog sound for the '90s, though it still sounds somewhat less complex than much of the band's '70s material, owing mostly to its slower tempo. It even incorporates their '70s-era habit of reprising melodic material from an album's first song in its ultimate or penultimate track.
70	* LargeHam: Phil Collins' televangelist character in the music video for "Jesus He Knows Me" is ''very'' bombastic in his sermons and behavior, with the ham factor ramping up as the video goes on (especially in the uncut version, where he gets so hammy his aides have to drag him off the set). Note that the song and video are both meant to mock televangelists, who themselves are known for their hammy delivery.
71	* LongestSongGoesLast: The 10:27 "Fading Lights" closes out the album.
72	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The protagonist of "Dreaming While You Sleep," who hit a girl/woman with his car and drove away.
73	* NewSoundAlbum: Well, more "new old sound album"; ''We Can't Dance'' strips back the synth-heavy production of ''Music/InvisibleTouch'' and goes back to the middle ground between "Prog Genesis" and "Pop Genesis" that defined the band's 1978-1981 output.
74	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Collins' character in "Jesus He Knows Me" is a parody of Ernest Angley. The music video's opening monologue is based on an actual story Angley recounted at an earlier stage of his career.
75	* PhoneWord: In the "Jesus He Knows Me" video, the number that appears on the screen during the line "Just call my toll-free number" is 1-FiveFiveFive-GEN-ESIS.
76	* ProgressiveRock: The album version of "No Son of Mine", "Driving the Last Spike", "Dreaming While You Sleep", and "Fading Lights" all show that the band hadn't quite forgotten where they came from; arguably, they lean closer to it on this album than on ''Music/InvisibleTouch''.
77	* ProtestSong: According to Music/PhilCollins, "Tell Me Why" was written in direct response to UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar, particularly focusing on the mass displacement of the Kurdish people in the wake of the conflict.
78	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Since I Lost You" was inspired by the death of Music/EricClapton's four-year-old son Connor, who accidentally fell from the 53rd-story bedroom window of his mother's friend's apartment.
79	* RecurringRiff: Part of Tony Banks' keyboard solo in the instrumental section of "Fading Lights" (around five or six minutes into the song) is melodically reminiscent of elements from the bridge near the end of "No Son of Mine". It's not exactly identical, but it's close enough that it stands out and provides a sense of bookends to the entire album (since they're the last and first songs, respectively).
80	* ReligionRantSong: "Jesus He Knows Me" (a critique of televangelists) falls under Type 3.
81	* RockOpera: "Driving the Last Spike" and "Dreaming While You Sleep" are latter-day examples of mini-rock operas, being incredibly lengthy songs telling self-contained stories.
82	* TheRunaway: The protagonist of "No Son of Mine" is a boy who runs away from his abusive father.
83	* ShoutOut: The music video for "I Can't Dance" spoofs the infamous ending of Music/MichaelJackson's then-recent [[Music/DangerousAlbum "Black or White"]] video.
84	* TakeThat: Lots of them. Among other examples...
85	** "Jesus He Knows Me" is a pretty open one against televangelists and prosperity theology; it's made even more clear in the uncut version of the song's music video, which features scenes of Phil Collins' televangelist character becoming so unhinged that his aides have to tear him away from the camera.
86	** "I Can't Dance" ridicules stylistic, model-heavy {{Dada Ad}}s selling blue jeans (Phil felt the backing track sounded like an artsy/trendy Levi's ad, and the illustration for the song in the liner notes shows a man wearing blue jeans, taken from his backside).
87	** "Living Forever" mocks self-help trends, new age philosophies and fad diets.
88	** "Tell Me Why" criticizes wealthy governments for doing too little to help poverty and hunger.
89	* TitleTrack: Kinda-sorta with "I Can't Dance", which is similar in name to the album title, but uses the singular first-person pronoun rather than the plural.
90	* VaudevilleHook: Almost. At the end of both the "I Can't Dance" video and the uncut "Jesus He Knows Me" video, Mike and Tony come in from offscreen to drag Phil away.

Context Music / WeCantDance