Phil Collins

No Jacket Required

The Signature Phil Collins Album

Review Score:

(10/10)
By the time Phil Collins released his third album "No Jacket Required" he was now an established superstar in the music industry: He had two successful solo albums ("Face Value" and "Hello, I Must Be Going"); His group Genesis was more popular than ever - coming off their most successful selling album (the self titled 'Genesis') to date; He had had his first U.S. Number One Single with the theme song from the "Against All Odds"; And he had now become a sought after producer - namely on Philip Bailey's solo album "Chinese Wall". The timing was right for Phil Collins' career to continue to grow and with "No Jacket Required", he continued to be not only a commercial force in the music industry, but now would continue to grow as a creative force. Phil's last album, "Hello, I Must Be Going" was a highly personal album that documented the breakup of his first marriage. Although this album still does explore some of the issues that surrounded Phil's breakup of his marriage, it does take a more light approach and proves to be a lot more fun. This album would produce two #1 singles ("One More Night" and "Sussudio"), but it was the strength of many of the unreleased singles that make this album special. The title of the album comes when Phil was denied entry to Chicago's Pump Room at the famed Ambassador East Hotel. Phil appropriately titles the album "No Jacket Required" and creates many songs that are in the same spirit of him making light of the incident.

Phil Collins' first two albums had three central themes: 1) The integration horns into many of the songs; 2) The use of a "dark psychedelic" element. (The best way I can describe this is this is the kind of music you might hear on a quiet, dark city street - with a touch of psychedelica); 3) The Thundering, Haunting Drums of Phil Collins continue. With the "Hello" album, Phil also introduced a fourth element - the use of keyboards and pianos. On "No Jacket Required", there isn't much of the "dark psychedelic element". The horns and haunting drums remain. Phil uses the Phenix Horns and/or Saxaphone on 6 of the 11 tracks. On "Hello, I Must Be Going", Phil introduced a lot more keyboards. On this album, Phil makes more uses of guitar and bass thanks to contributions by Daryl Stuermer and Leland Sklar respectively.

The best way to describe this album is on a song by song basis:

"Sussudio": Right off the bat, Collins establishes the lighter element. He makes up a word - Sussudio. This song did suffer from being overplayed, but the impact of this new word can be felt. The Horns also play a great role on this song.

"Only You Know and I Know" - possibly one of the most underrated songs of his career. Once again great use of horns and Phil really hammers those drums. Phil touches on the relationship theme here.

"Long Long Way to Go" - another underrated song. This song features Sting in a very prominent guest vocal. Collins and Sting actually performed this song at Live Aid together. This is the most serious of the tracks as it discusses dealing with death. This is the one song on the album that isn't "dark".

"I Don't Wanna Know" - this is song that goes back and touches the theme of Phil's breakup. Phil paints a vision of what would happen if his ex would take him back. There is some great sax play on this song.

"One More Night" - this is a classic Phil ballad. Also an overplayed song. It's probably the weakest song on the album. This contains a nice sax solo and a string arrangement.

"Don't Lose My Number" - another "fun" song. This song along with the video in which Phil tries to figure out a "video" to make helped enhance Phil's "fun" image.

"Who Said I Would" - another highly underrated song. Great horns, great vocals. This song is even better live on the "Serious Hits: Live" album.

"Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore": Phil's drums are as booming as ever. This song is another gem that nobody ever heard about.

"Inside Out" - this song got a lot of airplay. Very good song - features more terrific Sax.

"Take Me Home" - this became the staple closing song of Phil's concerts. It has almost a mantra quality. The background vocals feature Sting and Phil's former Genesis mate - Peter Gabriel. Terrific.

"We Said Hello Goodbye" - this song is only available on the CD version of this album, so LP and cassette listeners did not have this song. It got a lot of airplay in 1987 and rightfully so. This is another masterpiece and features a terrific orchestral introduction by Arif Mardin. The intro then ends and the main song begins. In the main part, there are some very emotional lyrics and music.

The liner notes contain details about all of the musicians that work on the effort for this collection. Unfortunately the version I have of the album contains no lyrics. The other drawback is that the credits are put in what appears to be "Phil Collins like" handwriting and it makes it hard to read.

This album won the Grammy for "Album of the Year" in 1985 - a year that was the most competitive album year I can remember. I personally thought Sting's "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" had a slight edge for "Album of the Year", but no way could you argue with the choice of this album. I still play this album today. I wish Phil would play more of the lesser known songs in concert from this album. The album might not be as 'serious' as his previous, but it is still top notch. No argument here - this is a landmark album and highly recommended.

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