OT: Phil Collins' greatest solo songs – ranked!
Aug 14, 2020 1:11:54 GMT
nutsberryfarm 🏜, Rey Kahuka, and 1 more like this
Post by Carl LaFong on Aug 14, 2020 1:11:54 GMT
www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/13/phil-collins-greatest-solo-songs-ranked
First person to quote Patrick Bateman gets a 90 day ban!
20. You’ve Been Cheatin’ (2010)
It gets forgotten that above all, Phil Collins is a music fan. His last album to date, 2010’s Going Back – from which this Impressions cover comes – is simply his favourite Motown and soul tracks, replayed note for note (with original musicians involved) and Collins singing. It sounds like the most fun he had at any time in his career.
19. The Phil Collins Big Band – That’s All (1999)
Partly a way of getting a Genesis song into this list, but also to illustrate how Collins used his commercial waning to branch out into doing the things he wanted to do, now there was less pressure for huge hits. His album A Hot Night in Paris – his own songs, in the big band idiom – is unexpectedly joyful.
18. Everyday (1993)
Both Sides – on which Collins played everything himself – was more of a mood piece of an album than a collection of hits, but if there’s one thing Collins can do without breaking a sweat, it’s sit at a keyboard to compose a lovelorn ballad. It turned out Both Lives was actually too smooth – a mere double platinum in the UK compared with the nine-times platinum of its predecessor, … But Seriously.
17. Just Another Story (1996)
Collins’ love of Prince was evident in the 80s, but you can hear it strongly a decade later; Just Another Story is pretty much an attempt to rewrite Sign o’ the Times. The vocal phrasing is similar in places, the coolness of the instrumentation very similar. It’s also a far better stab at social commentary than Another Day in Paradise.
16. Droned (1981)
What would Collins’ solo career have been like had In the Air Tonight not been a monstrous hit? Perhaps it would have reflected more closely the Collins who was a noted collaborator of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, and who continued working with Peter Gabriel after he had left Genesis. This instrumental from his debut solo LP, Face Value, proves how many directions were open to Collins at that point.
15. Like China (1982)
There was still eccentricity on his second album, Hello … I Must Be Going, notably this, a heavy rock character piece delivered in a broad cockney accent, which sounds very much like it would be at home in a musical. Lyrically and vocally it’s far less a conventional song than something theatrical – you can imagine the Artful Dodger coming out in Collins.
14. You’ll Be in My Heart (1999)
The success of The Lion King led Disney to try the same model – get big star to write a couple of songs – for Tarzan. “I have these hackles that rise when people say: ‘What’s he doing Disney for? It’s just kids’ music!’” Collins told me in 2018. “If you’re a songwriter, especially, you should want to see what it feels like outside comfort zones and try to see what makes that music tick.”
13. The Roof Is Leaking (1981)
Unlike anything else on Face Value, this piano ballad accompanied by ragged slide guitar is about struggling through winter. Oddly, it comes over rather like a realist version of Rod Stewart’s Mandolin Wind with all the romance removed and all the hardship emphasised.
12. Don’t Let Him Steal Your Heart Away (1982)
The bitterness of Face Value – written and recorded in the aftermath of Collins’s wife leaving him – was softened on its follow-up. This is still an angry heartbreak ballad, but it’s filled with love more than hate, and the arrangement – redolent of his beloved Beatles – gives it an attractively warm melancholy.
11. I Wish It Would Rain Down (1989)
By Collins’s fourth album, … But Seriously, huge success seemed to have sanded away the musical oddities of his first two solo records, but the craftsmanship was undeniable. I Wish It Would Rain Down is late-80s power ballad perfection: the crashing guitars at the chorus, the restraint of the verses, the force of the central hook.
10. Easy Lover (1984)
Earth, Wind & Fire were another Collins touchstone, and Easy Lover was officially a single for their singer Philip Bailey. But it was a Collins duet, co-write and co-production that fell slap bang in the middle of his run of 80s hits. There’s no heartbreak here, just a lesson in how to construct an irresistible hit single.
First person to quote Patrick Bateman gets a 90 day ban!
20. You’ve Been Cheatin’ (2010)
It gets forgotten that above all, Phil Collins is a music fan. His last album to date, 2010’s Going Back – from which this Impressions cover comes – is simply his favourite Motown and soul tracks, replayed note for note (with original musicians involved) and Collins singing. It sounds like the most fun he had at any time in his career.
19. The Phil Collins Big Band – That’s All (1999)
Partly a way of getting a Genesis song into this list, but also to illustrate how Collins used his commercial waning to branch out into doing the things he wanted to do, now there was less pressure for huge hits. His album A Hot Night in Paris – his own songs, in the big band idiom – is unexpectedly joyful.
18. Everyday (1993)
Both Sides – on which Collins played everything himself – was more of a mood piece of an album than a collection of hits, but if there’s one thing Collins can do without breaking a sweat, it’s sit at a keyboard to compose a lovelorn ballad. It turned out Both Lives was actually too smooth – a mere double platinum in the UK compared with the nine-times platinum of its predecessor, … But Seriously.
17. Just Another Story (1996)
Collins’ love of Prince was evident in the 80s, but you can hear it strongly a decade later; Just Another Story is pretty much an attempt to rewrite Sign o’ the Times. The vocal phrasing is similar in places, the coolness of the instrumentation very similar. It’s also a far better stab at social commentary than Another Day in Paradise.
16. Droned (1981)
What would Collins’ solo career have been like had In the Air Tonight not been a monstrous hit? Perhaps it would have reflected more closely the Collins who was a noted collaborator of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, and who continued working with Peter Gabriel after he had left Genesis. This instrumental from his debut solo LP, Face Value, proves how many directions were open to Collins at that point.
15. Like China (1982)
There was still eccentricity on his second album, Hello … I Must Be Going, notably this, a heavy rock character piece delivered in a broad cockney accent, which sounds very much like it would be at home in a musical. Lyrically and vocally it’s far less a conventional song than something theatrical – you can imagine the Artful Dodger coming out in Collins.
14. You’ll Be in My Heart (1999)
The success of The Lion King led Disney to try the same model – get big star to write a couple of songs – for Tarzan. “I have these hackles that rise when people say: ‘What’s he doing Disney for? It’s just kids’ music!’” Collins told me in 2018. “If you’re a songwriter, especially, you should want to see what it feels like outside comfort zones and try to see what makes that music tick.”
13. The Roof Is Leaking (1981)
Unlike anything else on Face Value, this piano ballad accompanied by ragged slide guitar is about struggling through winter. Oddly, it comes over rather like a realist version of Rod Stewart’s Mandolin Wind with all the romance removed and all the hardship emphasised.
12. Don’t Let Him Steal Your Heart Away (1982)
The bitterness of Face Value – written and recorded in the aftermath of Collins’s wife leaving him – was softened on its follow-up. This is still an angry heartbreak ballad, but it’s filled with love more than hate, and the arrangement – redolent of his beloved Beatles – gives it an attractively warm melancholy.
11. I Wish It Would Rain Down (1989)
By Collins’s fourth album, … But Seriously, huge success seemed to have sanded away the musical oddities of his first two solo records, but the craftsmanship was undeniable. I Wish It Would Rain Down is late-80s power ballad perfection: the crashing guitars at the chorus, the restraint of the verses, the force of the central hook.
10. Easy Lover (1984)
Earth, Wind & Fire were another Collins touchstone, and Easy Lover was officially a single for their singer Philip Bailey. But it was a Collins duet, co-write and co-production that fell slap bang in the middle of his run of 80s hits. There’s no heartbreak here, just a lesson in how to construct an irresistible hit single.
