No Jacket Required - Collins, Phil (CD)

It's a pretty neat thing to have two jobs. Eh, I take that back. It's probably only neat when you receive the paycheck on Friday. But it's pretty impressive. Sh*t, I'm exhausted at the end of the work week after ONE job in which I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day.

British pop star Phil Collins held down two gigs for nearly a 20 year span. No, the diminutive Collins wasn't supplementing his singing income by flipping burgers (I don't know that he would have been able to reach the grill). By day, he was 1/3 (or 1/4, or 1/5) of prog-rockers turned tight Top 40 outfit Genesis, first handling drums, then taking over lead vocals while still assuming drum duty. By night, he was slowly developing into a slo star using pretty much the same approach. While his first album, "Face Value", was a moody album chronicling the meltdown of his first marriage, as years went by he scored a couple of peppy hits like the Supremes cover "You Can't Hurry Love" and the Philip Bailey duet "Easy Lover". He also snagged his first Number One (and an Oscar nomination to boot) by performing the theme to the movie "Against All Odds".

The album that followed the latter two of those singles-1985's "No Jacket Required"-was HUGE. All of the elements he'd slowly built up-his membership in Genesis, his collaborations and duets, and his slowly growing solo success-helped turn this album into a monster. And the album still sounds good twenty years later. Mixing spacy atmospherics with standard balladry and a few nods to Eighties dance, Phil made what many consider to be a perfect pop album.

So what if the cover image (a pretty severe close up of Phil's face, which appears to be drenched in sweat) is a little disturbing? The music contained within is fun, catchy and hooky. And Phil reveals himself to be quite the vocalist as well, cooing softly one moment and shouting emphatically the next.

Of course, everyone remembers the hits. "One More Night" was the typical 80s ballad. First thing you notice is "Gee, for a drummer-and one of the best drummers in the industry, at that-he sure uses a drum machine a lot!". This might irk some stuck-in-the-mud traditionalists, but I don't really care. Anyway, back to "One More Night". This dusky slow jam finds Phil begging (occasionally in falsetto) for that speaial lady to give him one more night. The lyrics are actually kinda creepy ("Like a river to the sea, I will always be with you...And if you sail away, I will follow you"), but the song's hypnotic flavor and that awesomely 80s sax solo helped rocket it to the top spot of the charts.

"Sussudio" was the hit everyone remembers. A thundering dance jam with a prominent horn section and keyboard blasts that are a wee bit (OK- a lot bit) reminiscent of Prince's "1999" mark this as a signature 80s dance jam. After careful research, I've discovered-there's no person in the world with the name "Sussudio". Although Phil did right picking that name if we still remember the chorus like clockwork all this time after the song was a hit. On a slightly more aggressive tack, there's "Don't Lose My Number". Phil speeds up the tempo a little bit (and adds a guitar solo) to offer kind words to some kid named Billy who's done...well, he's done something, and he swears he's never coming back!! Phil swears that he never meant to do anything wrong, but it's gonna get worse if he waits too long. Oh, the drama!

"Take Me Home" found Phil back in reflective mode with an atmospheric synth-heavy song. Former Genesis bandmate Peter Gabriel pops in to add background vocals to this song.

While the four singles are all pretty excellent, some of the album tracks are memorable as well. The chilling "Long Way To Go" was one of the first Phil social conscience songs, and wound up being one of the key songs used in the Live Aid telecast several months after this album's release. On this moody ballad, Phil condemns apathy with help from a very prominent Sting on background vocals. Meanwhile, "We Said Hello Goodbye" is a tender ballad that can rightfully be called Beatle-Esque. And sh*t, Phil actually plays the drums on here! Actually, it's not Beatle-esque, it's Lennon-esque, what with the echoed vocals and drums. It's an affecting ballad either way.

Wow. I use the word "ballad" a LOT.

There are a couple of throwaway tracks on here ("Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Any More" and "Only You Know And I Know", to name but two), but "Jacket" pretty much follows in the standard of just about any behemoth 80's album ("She's So Unusual", "Can't Slow Down", "Like A Virgin") by combining 3/4 classic material with 1/4 unadulterated crap. And those songs weren't so much crap as they were examples of Phil lowering himself down the well one or two too many times. "Only" and "Who Said I Would?" sound like rehashes of "Don't Lose My Number" and "Sussudio", respectively.

At any rate, "No Jacket Required" is a solid album. Sure, it sounds dated (drum machines and echo-Echo-ECho-ECHo-ECHO galore!), but good songwriting trumps dated production, and these are incredibly good songs. Phil is also a pretty decent vocalist, hinting at soul influences without going for the melisma-filled throat-shredding of, say, Michael Bolton. Not to mention Phil's "who, me?" personality was quite refreshing at the time. All these things wrap up to make "No Jacket Required" a must-have for any Eighties enthusiast.


"No Jacket Required" by Phil Collins

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Repeat: "Sussudio", "One More Night", "We Said Hello Goodbye", "Don't Lose My Number", "Long Long Way To Go"

Skip: "Only You Know & I Know", "Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore"

Great Music to Play While: Remembering that when Phil accepted his Album Of The Year Grammy in '86, he was wearing a suit with dirty sneakers.