So, Sup Forums, do you listen to Phil Collins?
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Of course I do. I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980
album, Duke. Before that I didn't really understand any of their
work, though on their last album of the 1970s, the concept-laden
And Then There Were Three (a reference to band member Peter
Gabriel, who left the group to start a lame solo career), I did enjoy
the lovely "Follow You, Follow Me." Otherwise all the albums
before Duke seemed too artsy, too intelleotual. It was Duke, where Phil Collins' presence became more
apparent, and the music got more modern, the drum machine became
more prevalent and the lyrics started getting less mystical and more
specific (maybe because of Peter Gabriel's departure), and complex,
ambiguous studies of loss became, instead, smashing first-rate pop
songs that I gratefully embraced. The songs themselves seemed
arranged more around Collins' drumming than Mike Rutherford's
bass lines or Tony Banks' keyboard riffs. A classic example of this is
"Misunderstanding," which not only was the group's first big hit of
the eighties but also seemed to set the tone for the rest of
theiralbums as the decade progressed. The other standout on Duke is
"Turn It On Again," which is about the negative effects of television.
On the other hand, "Heathaze" is a song I just don't understand,
while "Please Don't Ask" is a touching love song written to a
separated wife who regains custody of the couple's child. Has the
negative aspect of divorce ever been rendered in more intimate terms
by a rock 'n' roll group? I don't think so. "Duke Travels" and "Dukes
End" might mean something but since the lyrics aren't printed it's
hard to tell what Collins is singing about, though there is complex,
gorgeous piano work by Tony Banks on the latter track. The only
bummer about Duke is "Alone Tonight," which is way too
reminiscent of "Tonight Tonight Tonight" from the group's later
masterpiece Invisible Touch and the only example, really, of where
Collins has plagiarized himself.
Abacab was released almost immediately after Duke
and it benefits from a new producer, Hugh Padgham, who gives the
band a more eighties sound and though the songs seem fairly
generic, there are still great bits throughout: the extended jam in the
middle of the title track and the horns by some group called Earth,
Wind and Fire on "No Reply at All" are just two examples. Again the
songs reflect dark emotions and are about people who feel lost or
who are in conflict, but the production and sound are gleaming and
upbeat (even if the titles aren't: "No Reply at All," "Keep It Dark,"
"Who Dunnit?" "Like It or Not"). Mike Rutherford's bass is obscured
somewhat in the mix but otherwise the band sounds tight and is once
again propelled by Collins' truly amazing drumming. Even at its
most despairing (like the song "Dodo," about extinction), Abacab
musically is poppy and lighthearted.
My favorite track is "Man on the Corner," which is the only song
credited solely to Collins, a moving ballad with a pretty synthesized
melody plus a riveting drum machine in the background. Though it
could easily come off any of Phil's solo albums, because the themes
of loneliness, paranoia and alienation are overly familiar to Genesis
it evokes the band's hopeful humanism. "Man on the Corner"
profoundly equates a relationship with a solitary figure (a bum,
perhaps a poor homeless person?), "that lonely man on the corner"
who just stands around. "Who Dunnit?" profoundly expresses the
theme of confusion against a funky groove, and what makes this
song so exciting is that it ends with its narrator never finding
anything out at all.
Hugh Padgham produced next an even less conceptual effort, simply
called Genesis, and though it's a fine album a lot of
it now seems too derivative for my tastes. 'That's All" sounds like
"Misunderstanding," "Taking It All Too Hard" reminds me of
"Throwing It All Away." It also seems less jazzy than its
predecessors and more of an eighties pop album, more rock 'n' roll.
Padgham does a brilliant job of producing, but the material is weaker
than usual and you can sense the strain. It opens with the
autobiographical "Mama," that's both strange and touching, though I
couldn't tell if the singer was talking about his actual mother or to a
girl he likes to call "Mama." 'That's All" is a lover's lament about
being ignored and beaten down by an unreceptive partner; despite
the despairing tone it's got a bright sing-along melody that makes the
song less depressing than it probably needed to be. "That's All" is
the best tune on the album, but Phil's voice is strongest on "House
by the Sea," whose lyrics are, however, too stream-of-consciousness
to make much sense. It might be about growing up and accepting
adulthood but it's unclear; at any rate, its second instrumental part
puts the song more in focus for me and Mike Banks gets to show off
his virtuosic guitar skills while Tom Rutherford washes the tracks
over with dreamy synthesizers, and when Phil repeats the song's
third verse at the end it can give you chills.
"Illegal Alien" is the most explicitly political song the group has yet
recorded and their funniest. The subject is supposed to be sad - a
wetback trying to get across the border into the United States - but
the details are highly comical: the bottle of tequila the Mexican
holds, the new pair of shoes he's wearing (probably stolen); and it all
seems totally accurate. Phil sings it in a brash, whiny pseudo-
Mexican voice that makes it even funnier, and the rhyme of "fun"
with "illegal alien" is inspired. "Just a Job to Do" is the album's
funkiest song, with a killer bass line by Banks, and though it seems
to be about a detective chasing a criminal, I think it could also be
about a jealous lover tracking someone down. "Silver Rainbow" is
the album's most lyrical song. The words are intense, complex and
gorgeous. The album ends on a positive, upbeat note with "It's
Gonna Get Better." Even if the lyrics seem a tiny bit generic to
some, Phil's voice is so confident (heavily influenced by Peter
Gabriel, who never made an album this polished and heartfelt
himself) that he makes us believe in glorious possibilities.
Invisible Touch is the group's undisputed
masterpiece.
Phil Collins is a nigger
It's an epic meditation on intangibility, at the same time
it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums.
It has a resonance that keeps coming back at the listener, and the
music is so beautiful that it's almost impossible to shake off because
every song makes some connection about the unknown or the spaces
between people ("Invisible Touch"), questioning authoritative
control whether by domineering lovers or by government ("Land of
Confusion") or by meaningless repetition ("Tonight Tonight
Tonight'. All in all it ranks with the finest rock 'n' roll achievements
of the decade and the mastermind behind this album, along of course
with the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and
Rutherford, is Hugh Padgham, who has never found as clear and
crisp and modern a sound as this. You can practically hear every
nuance of every instrument.
In terms of lyrical craftsmanship and sheer songwriting skills this
album hits a new peak of professionalism. Take the lyrics to "Land
of Confusion," in which a singer addresses the problem of abusive
political authority. This is laid down with a groove funkier and
blacker than anything Prince or Michael Jackson - or any other black
artist of recent years, for that matter - has come up with. Yet as
danceable as the album is, it also has a stripped-down urgency that
not even the overrated Bruce Springsteen can equal. As an observer
of love's failings Collins beats out the Boss again and again,
reaching new heights of emotional honesty on "In Too Deep"; yet it
also showcases Collins' clowny, prankish, unpredictable side. It's the
most moving pop song of the 1980s about monogamy and
commitment. "Anything She Does" (which echoes the J. Geils Band's
"Centerfold" but is more spirited and energetic) starts off side two
and after that the album reaches its peak with "Domino," a two-part
song. Part one, "In the Heat of the Night," is full of sharp, finely
drawn images of despair and it's paired with "The Last Domino,"
which fights it with an expression of hope. This song is extremely
uplifting. The lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've
heard in rock.
Phil Collins' solo efforts seem to be more commercial and therefore
more satisfying in a narrower way, especially No Jacket Required
and songs like "In the Air Tonight" and "Against All Odds" (though
that song was overshadowed by the masterful movie from which it
came) and "Take Me Home" and "Sussudio" (great, great song; a
personal favorite) and his remake of "You Can't Hurry Love," which
I'm not alone in thinking is better than the Supremes' original. But I
also think that Phil Collins works better within the confines of the
group than as a solo artist - and I stress the word artist. In fact it
applies to all three of the guys, because Genesis is still the best,
most exciting band to come out of England in the 1980s.
NOW TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW
Guys do you listen to Whitney Houston?
Phil Collins is a pale imitation of peter Gabriel.
Whitney Houston burst onto the music scene in 1985 with her selftitled
LP which had four number one hit singles on it, including "The
Greatest Love of All," "You Give Good Love" and "Saving All My
Love for You," plus it won a Grammy Award for best pop vocal
performance by a female and two American Music Awards, one for
best rhythm and blues single and another for best rhythm and blues
video. She was also cited as best new artist of the year by Billboard
and by Rolling Stone magazine. With all this hype one might expect
the album to be an anticlimactic, lackluster affair, but the surprise is
that Whitney Houston (Arista) is one of the warmest, most complex
and altogether satisfying rhythm and blues records of the decade and
Whitney herself has a voice that defies belief. From the elegant,
beautiful photo of her on the cover of the album (in a gown by
Giovanne De Maura) and its fairly sexy counterpart on the back (in a
bathing suit by Norma Kaman) one knows that this isn't going to be
a blandly professional affair; the record is smooth but intense and
Whitney's voice leaps across so many boundaries and is so versatile
(though she's mainly a jazz singer) that it's hard to take in the album
on a first listening. But you won't want to. You'll want to savor it
over many.
It opens with "You Give Good Love" and "Thinking About You,"
both produced and arranged by Kashif, and they emanate warm, lush
jazz arrangements but with a contemporary synthesized beat and
though they're both really good songs, the album doesn't get kicking
until "Someone for Me" which was produced by Jermaine Jackson,
where Whitney sings longingly against a jazz-disco background and
the difference between her longing and the sprightliness of the song
is very moving. The ballad "Saving All My Love for You" is the
sexiest, most romantic song on the record. It also has a killer
saxophone solo by Tom Scott and one can hear the influences of
sixties girl-group pop in it (it was cowritten by Gerry Goffin) but the
sixties girl groups were never this emotional or sexy (or as well
produced) as this song is. "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do" is a
glorious duet with Jermaine Jackson (who also produced it) and just
one example of how sophisticated lyrically this album is. The last
thing it suffers from is a paucity of decent lyrics which is what
usually happens when a singer doesn't write her own material and
has to have her producer choose it. But Whitney and company have
picked well here.
NO YOU JUST HAVE TO WAIT
fuck yea i do buddy
not much, but i do listen to this
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The dance single "How Will I Know" (my vote for best dance song
of the 1980s) is a joyous ode to a girl's nervousness about whether
another guy is interested in her. It's got a great keyboard riff and it's
the only track on the album produced by wunderkind producer
Narada Michael Walden. My own personal favorite ballad (aside
from 'The Greatest Love of All" - her crowning achievement) is "All
at Once" which is about how a young woman realizes all at once her
lover is fading away from her and it's accompanied by a gorgeous
string arrangement. Even though nothing on the album sounds like
filler, the only track that might come close is "Take Good Care of
My Heart," another duet with Jermaine Jackson. The problem is that
it strays from the album's jazz roots and seems too in. fluenced by
1980s dance music.
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But Whitney's talent is restored with the overwhelming "The
Greatest Love of All," one of the best, most powerful songs ever
written about self-preservation and dignity. From the first line
(Michael Masser and Linda Creed are credited as the writers) to the
last, it's a state-of-the-art ballad about believing in yourself. It's a
powerful statement and one that Whitney sings with a grandeur that
approaches the sublime. Its universal message crosses all boundaries
and instills one with the hope that it's not too late for us to better
ourselves, to act kinder. Since it's impossible in the world we live in
to empathize with others, we can always empathize with ourselves.
It's an important message, crucial really, and it's beautifully stated
on this album.
Her second effort, Whitney (Arista, 1987), had four number one
singles, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," "So Emotional," "Didn't
We Almost Have It All?" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" and
was mostly produced by Narada Michael Walden and though it's not
as serious an effort as Whitney Houston it's hardly a victim of
Sophomore Slump. It starts off with the bouncy; danceable "I Wanna
Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" which is in the same vein
as the last album's irrepressible "How Will I Know." This is
followed by the sensuous "Just the Lonely Talking Again" and it
reflects the serious jazz influence that permeated the first album and
one can also sense a newfound artistic maturity in Whitney's voice -
she did all the vocal arrangements on this album - and this is all very
evident on "Love Will Save the Day" which is the most ambitious
song Whitney's yet performed. It was produced by Jellybean Benitez
and it pulsates with an uptempo intensity and like most of the songs
on this album it reflects a grownup's awareness of the world we all
live in.
She sings and we believe it. This is quite a change from the
softer, little-girl-lost image that was so appealing on the first album.
She projects an even more adult image on the Michael Masserproduced
"Didn't We Almost Have It All," a song about meeting up
with a long-lost lover and letting him know your feelings about the
past affair, and it's Whitney at her most poetic. And as on most of
the ballads there's a gorgeous string arrangement. "So Emotional" is
in the same vein as "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with
Somebody" but it's even more rock-influenced and, like all the songs
on Whitney, played by a terrific backup studio band with Narada on
drum machine, Wolter Afanasieff on the synthesizer and synth bass,
Corrado Rustici on synth guitar, and someone listed as Bongo Bob
on percussion programming and drum sampling. "Where You Are" is
the only song on the album produced by Kashif and it bears his
indelible imprint of professionalism - it has a smooth, gleaming
sound and sheen to it with a funky sax solo by Vincent Henry. It
sounded like a hit single to me (but then all the songs on the album
do) and I wondered why it wasn't released as one.
"Love Is a Contact Sport" is the album's real surprise - a bigsounding,
bold, sexy number that, in terms of production, is the
album's centerpiece, and it has great lyrics along with a good beat.
It's one of my favorites. On "You're Still My Man" you can hear how
clearly Whitney's voice is like an instrument - a flawless, warm
machine that almost overpowers the sentiment of her music, but the
lyrics and the melodies are too distinctive, too strong to let any
singer, even one of Whitney's caliber, overshadow them. "For the
Love of You" shows off Narada's brilliant drum programming
capabilities and its jazzy modern feel harks back not only to
purveyors of modern jazz like Michael Jackson and Sade but also to
other artists, like Miles Davis, Paul Butterfield and Bobby McFerrin.
"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" is the album's most powerful
emotional statement of innocence lost and trying to regain the safety
of childhood. Her voice is as lovely and controlled as it ever has
been and it leads up to "I Know Him So Well," the most moving
moment on the record because it's first and foremost a duet with her
mother, Cissy. It's a ballad about… who? - a lover shared? a longlost
father? - with a combination of longing, regret, determination
and beauty that ends the album on a graceful, perfect note. We can
expect new things from Whitney (she made a stunning gift to the
1988 Olympics with the ballad "One Moment in Time") but even if
we didn't, she would remain the most exciting and original black
jazz voice of her generation.
>tfw no gf
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Is this some new pasta you're trying to cook up?
Holy hell shut up queer
Are you seriously this fucking new? Reddit please please PLEASE leave
>american literacy