The Pop Life (original) (raw)
Arts|The Pop Life
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/06/arts/the-pop-life-365789.html
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- Dec. 6, 1989
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December 6, 1989
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Section C, Page
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A Concerned Collins
''I never used to have an image,'' Phil Collins said. ''Then suddenly I turned around and someone had stamped 'middle-of-the-road balladeer' on my back. Some of the people who have commented on how many new ballads there are on my new album don't seem to realize that some of those ballads make strong statements about social issues.''
Beneath its glistening musical surfaces, ''. . . But Seriously'' (Atlantic), Mr. Collins's first solo album in five years, is pointedly more concerned about the state of the world than his earlier albums were. Some of the topics in the songs are homelessness (''Another Day in Paradise''), the troubles in Northern Ireland (''That's Just the Way It Is''), apartheid (''Colours'') and urban racial friction (''Heat on the Street'').
The 38-year-old English pop star, interviewed in an Upper East Side hotel recently, seemed miffed by the scorn that he said the English rock press has heaped on his songs of conscience.
''What offended me the most about the English reviews was people saying: 'What does Phil Collins know about these problems? He's got a lot of money.' That's a lot of rubbish. When I drive down the street, I see the same things everyone else sees. It's a misconception that if you have a lot of money you're somehow out of touch with reality.''
Even if the album has been greeted with some critical hostility in England, it is still a giant hit. The album entered the British pop charts at No. 1 last week. In this country, where records move up the charts more slowly, it leaped from No. 82 to No. 17 in its first two weeks. And ''Another Day in Paradise,'' the first single, has quickly climbed to No. 2. The song, which interweaves sketches of homeless people with a chorus that laments their plight, is the album's most musically striking cut. In its wistful, chiming chorus, the singer is joined by David Crosby's distinctive background vocals.
''Another Day in Paradise,'' like many of Mr. Collins's songs, was created by a process that resembles automatic writing.
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