The clever title of
Plays Well with Others, a four-disc compilation chronicling
Phil Collins' adventures as a sideman, also happens to tell the truth. Whether he was acting as a drummer, songwriter, singer, or producer,
Phil Collins does play well with others, adding distinct elements that helped distinguish these collaborations from other entries in an artist's discography. That these collaborations also often helped define the sound of their times is no accident, either. For over a quarter-century
Collins was omnipresent, first as a prog-rock drummer, then as a pop superstar in his own right, and in both roles he was instrumental in shaping the sound of modern productions.
Plays Well with Others goes a long way in illustrating this fact by tracing this evolution, spending three discs chronicling his studio work from 1969 to 2011, then capping off this biography with a live coda of collaborations. Some of the biggest names arrive on this fourth disc --
George Harrison,
Quincy Jones,
Tony Bennett, every one of them indicating the crowd
Collins ran with -- and it also contains some explicit genre experimentations (witness "Chips & Salsa," a track by the
Phil Collins Big Band), but compared to the epic told by the studio recordings, it feels like an afterthought. The story on the first discs is clear, complex, and fascinating. Collins begins as the go-to art-rock guy, navigating complex time signatures for
Argent and
Brand X, but also adding funky elements to
Brian Eno and able to seem as primitively punk as
John Cale. Then, he reunites with his former
Genesis bandmate
Peter Gabriel for "Intruder," adhering to the singer's dictate of no cymbals, and the doors are blown off:
Gabriel,
Collins, and producer
Hugh Padgham created the cavernous drum sound that came to define the '80s.
Collins would later exploit this sound expertly on his hits with
Genesis and on his own, almost all of them made with
Padgham, but it is heard in a pop form almost immediately when it's replicated on the tense, ominous throb of
Frida's "I Know There's Something Going On." From there, cymbals are added back into the mix, but the wide, spacious sound had been patented, and it'd be heard on recordings by
Robert Plant,
Al Di Meola,
Adam Ant, and
Philip. This is the era documented on the second disc, which represents
Collins' imperial period, when upstarts like
Howard Jones and vets like
Paul McCartney,
the Four Tops, and
Stephen Bishop hired him in hopes of replicating his magic. By the '90s, this sound got smoothed out, turning into adult contemporary in the hands of
Collins,
John Martyn, and
David Crosby, but rapper
Lil' Kim remembered the thunderous rapture of "In the Air Tonight" in her 2001 interpolation.
Plays Well with Others captures each iteration of this evolution in a way no
Phil Collins or
Genesis compilation could: the fact that it casts its net wide shows not only his versatility but his vast, lasting influence. If you're looking to understand the album rock and pop of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, this is essential. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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