Music and new CD review.
Everyone has heard of him, few admit to liking his music, but plenty buy his records. Phil Collins is a 48-year-old, London-born musician with a receding hairline. His latest album, in stores in time for Christmas, bears the tiresome title Hits – a collection of 15 best-selling singles, which have already accosted the radio listener often enough, plus one ”new” track: Phil’s version of the Cyndi Lauper classic, True Colors. Hits is proof of the contradictory nature of Collins’ music: on the one hand, simple melodies, on the other complicated drum work (“In the Air Tonight”), or the dance-inducing beat of “Sussudio.” Grammy-winning ”Another Day in Paradise” displays his musical mastery yet raises the question of whether he is really committed to helping homeless women as the song suggests, or just turning a societal dilemma into a ditty. Phil Collins, ex-singer/drummer of Genesis, went solo in 1981. His talent far exceeds his bad rap as a mediocre pop star. “What could be wrong with a man touching millions of people with his work? I don’t just sit in the studio wondering how I can come up with the next big hit, it’s been years since I’ve needed to do that!,” explains Collins, gesturing with his hands. “I write the kind of music that I like to listen to at home, and if I earn a ton of money doing it, so what? Should I go hang myself because a few critics think I’m too successful? No,I think I’d rather write a few more hits – I’ll be dead soon enough!” del amitri*** Hatful of rain (Mercury) In England this group of five singers (all over 30) have been well known for a decade, but the rest of the world knows only a couple of their hit singles: “Stone Cold Sober” and “Nothing Ever Happens.” Hatful of Rain is a 17-song collection, which gives 17 reasons for not labeling Del Amitri as a flash in the pan. The band, formed approximately 15 years ago, has a consistent music style. With full-bodied sound and a range of minor chords, Hatful of Rain has already shot up the English charts, and this compilation of bittersweet, passionate, timeless Britpop deserves to make it big in Germany as well. joe cocker*** Greatest Hits (EMI) His voice may be weaker, sound less compelling than it did before years of drugs and alcohol took their toll, but Sheffield-born Joe Cocker (54) still sings rings around the competition in the pop and soul categories Greatest Hits covers the past twelve years and includes “Have a Little Faith in Me,” “Summer in the City,” and “Night Calls.” For true fans, the man with the raspy pipes delivers two new songs: a remake of “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted,” and the debut “That’s All I Need to Know,” a duet with Italian pop star Eros Ramazotti. All in all – a well-rounded work. chumbawumba*** Uneasy Listening (EMI) The eight Chumba-wumbians have been out there for 15 years making their music, a mix of folk and punk with an anarchistic twist - songs for the working man. Their mega hit, “Tubthumping,” caught the attention of the fickle public, which had been ignoring the troop from Leeds for years, and hoisted them to stardom. Now their only task is changing the pop image created by that one toe-tapper. Uneasy Listening is a collection of songs spanning their long career, songs which reveal the controversial side of Chumbawumba. Political, radical, and lively, the music is anything but boring. P.J. Harvey**** Is This Desire? (Mercury) Of all the young, talented female songwriters out there today, Polly Jean (P.J.) Harvey, a singer from a small northern English village, is certainly the gloomiest. She has already established her melancholy style in three previous albums in which she delivers her musical message in either a gentle whisper or screaming rage. She opens her soul, is always honest, radical, intimate and emotional. Is This Desire? is more on the same theme. Not even Tori Amos, Kate Bush or Björk, singers with whom she is often compared, can ever reach her level of sincerity. This is great mood music. phish*** The Story of Ghost (East/West) For the last several years, Phish has been accepted into rock culture in the group’s native America as the logical successor to the Grateful Dead. The untimely death of Grateful Dead lead singer Jerry Garcia left the millions of “Dead Heads,” fans of the 30-year-old band - idolless. Although Phish band members are only 30 themselves, they take up the Dead style and stretch it in many directions – from jazz to folk – and throw in some wild improvisation.The songs, on this, their sixth album, evoke emotion in the listener who is happy to discover that the days of hippie culture live on.