One of Genesis' key members, bassist and later guitarist Mike Rutherford, will celebrate the solo side of his career with a new career-spanning compilation.

Looking Back - Living the Years is a new 16-track collection culling from nearly every one of Rutherford's albums with side project Mike + The Mechanics, for which he is the sole consistent member. (Every one of the band's many vocalists will be represented on the set.) Marking 40 years since the group's self-titled debut in 1985 - the same year Genesis bandmate Phil Collins' own solo career attained critical mass with No Jacket Required - Living the Years is the first Mechanics release as part of a new Rutherford catalogue deal with Concord's Craft Recordings imprint, who purchased the publishing and recorded rights of Rutherford, Collins and Tony Banks (as well as their trio work as Genesis) in 2022.

While Rutherford had released solo material in the early '80s during breaks in Genesis' activity, he found the process unenjoyable until struck by "a revelation...I'm much more creative and inspired when there are other people around me and I'm bouncing ideas off." Working with producer Christopher Neil and Scottish songwriting partner B.A. Robertson, Rutherford assembled a loose band featuring keyboardist Adrian Lee (Cliff Richards, Toyah), drummer Peter Van Hoeke (a studio and live collaborator of Van Morrison's), and two singers: Sad Café frontman Paul Young (not the U.K. pop idol of the same era), and journeyman Paul Carrack, well known for stints in Ace, Roxy Music and Squeeze. (Singer John Kirby also led two album tracks.) The group's slick pop/rock stylings bore incredible fruit on the Billboard charts, with the Young-sung "All I Need is a Miracle" and the atmospheric Carrack-led "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)" reaching Nos. 5 and 6, respectively.

The quintet scored even bigger with the title track to 1988's Living Years, a moving paean to the loss of a father (something Rutherford and co-writer Robertson had recently endured, and something its singer Carrack had experienced as a child). Backed by a children's choir and a driving guitar figure, "The Living Years" became the group's biggest hit, topping the BIllboard Hot 100 and coming in at No. 2 on the British charts. Third album Word of Mouth, issued just before work began on Genesis' We Can't Dance in 1991, featured an increased presence from Carrack, who not only sang six of its 10 tracks but co-wrote four of them.

Word of Mouth and its title track marked the last time Mike + The Mechanics would appear on the U.S. charts, but they weren't done: 1995's Beggar on a Beach of Gold featured a U.K. No. 12 hit in the Carrack-sung "Over My Shoulder." With Genesis largely in the rearview mirror at this point, Mike + The Mechanics issued the collection Hits in 1996, featuring a re-recorded "All I Need is a Miracle" (which is, interestingly, the version used on this set, too). The band began to sputter not long after: a self-titled 1999 album featuring neither Lee nor Van Hooke wasn't released in America, and is one of two works not represented in this set. The other, Rewired, arrived in 2004, four years after Young died of a heart attack.

In 2010, three years after Banks, Rutherford and Collins reunited as Genesis for a world tour, Mike + The Mechanics returned with an all-new line-up that included R&B singer Andrew Roachford, West End actor/singer Tim Sowar, keyboardist Luke Juby, guitarist Anthony Drennan and onetime Pink Floyd percussionist Gary Wallis on drums. (He'd previously sat behind the kit on the 1999 album and Rewired.) This line-up has released three albums: 2010's The Road, 2017's Let Me Fly and 2019's Out of the Blue, the latter of which featured a few select new tracks along with re-recordings of the group's biggest hits.

The group will tour in support of Living the Years this spring, a trek that crosses Europe and promises "all the hits & a drift into Genesis." The set is available on CD and digitally on March 14, with a 2LP edition to follow on April 4. Check out the track list and pre-order links below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Looking Back - Living the Years (Craft, 2025)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

1. Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)
2. All I Need is a Miracle '96
3. The Living Years
4. Word of Mouth
5. Over My Shoulder
6. A Beggar on a Beach of Gold
7. Another Cup of Coffee
8. Taken In
9. Nobody's Perfect
10. Everybody Gets a Second Chance
11. Nobody Knows
12. Seeing Is Believing
13. The Road
14. The Best is Yet to Come
15. Don't Know What Came Over Me
16. Out of the Blue

Tracks 1 and 8 from Mike + The Mechanics - WEA WX 49 (U.K.)/Atlantic 81287 (U.S.), 1985
Track 2 from Hits - Virgin CDV2797 (U.K.), 1996/Atlantic/Rhino R2 , 1996. Original version from Mike + The Mechanics
Tracks 3, 9 and 11-12 from Living Years - WEA WX 203 (U.K.)/Atlantic 81923 (U.S.), 1988
Tracks 4 and 10 from Word of Mouth - Virgin V2662 (U.K.)/Atlantic 82233 (U.S.), 1991
Tracks 5-7 from Beggar on a Beach of Gold - Virgin CDV2772 (U.K.)/Atlantic 82738 (U.S.), 1995
Track 13 from The Road - Arista 88697 84691-2 (U.K.), 2011
Tracks 14-15 from Let Me Fly - BMG 538268632 (U.K.), 2017
Track 16 from Out of the Blue - BMG 538472442 (U.K.), 2019