Oh, this heart of mine carries a heavy load

 Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts.

26/09/10 : Going Back - Phil Collins

I think Phil is a decent enough lad (provided we ignore the whole "dumping your wife by fax" thing) and I have a definite soft spot for Sussudio, but last time I visited him, it was not an enjoyable occasion.  I've no idea about this one though, so let's give him a clean slate and see where we go.

Hmmm.  It's definitely a hmmm.  When we've got here is a load of old 60s soul or R&B tracks - most of the ones I recognise are definitely Motown, but I can't swear they all are.  And firstly I have to say he obviously has a lot of love for that sound because they're faithful renditions and there's some tracks in there I've never heard, so he hasn't just picked the old classics.  However, in the very best cases, he adds absolutely nothing to any of them - and in several cases, you're left with the impression of a pretty average singer covering a stone cold classic ("Standing In The Shadows Of Love" in particular does not stand up to comparison).  And 77 minutes of the deluxe edition was most definitely not required.

We're at a somewhat surprising #1 in the charts this week on his second week of a fifteen week run - even more surprising because it came in at #4 and then went up to #1.  The rest of the top five were The Script, The Manic Street Preachers (a new entry), Brandon Flowers and Robert Plant and we have one more new entry in the top ten with Maroon 5 at #6.

Wikipedia tells us that he's not trying to bring anything new to the tracks (he doesn't) and he's trying to make them sound like the original (he doesn't) - but it was intended to be his last solo album (and, at time of writing, still is), so it's all quite a nice idea.  Amusingly, the artwork is a 13 year old Phil and was found by chance in the Getty Images library - so he had to pay to use it.  The critics were generally quite nice about it but I have to side with the guy from Record Collector who said "what possible use could anyone have for weedy-voiced faded Xeroxes of songs readily available in their wondrously uplifting original form?".  It did pretty well globally though, making the top ten in most countries except, ironically, in the US where it only got to #34.

"Customers also listened to" Genesis, Mike & The Mechanics and more Phil Collins tribute albums than you would believe existed.  This is very much not a Genesis album though - I think it's nice that he got to make it, but if anyone else had done so it would not have been quite so successful, I suspect.  And unfortunately, these days, when the original tracks and a load of interesting cover versions are so readily available, I struggle to think of a reason why anyone would want to listen to it at all.

19/09/10 - Interesting, if not entirely enjoyable
03/10/10 - A slightly odd album