Phil Collins
Both Sides

I set out to write this review, as I have done other times, with a sense of challenge. A challenge especially against clichés: Anyone who writes about Phil Collins inevitably struggles to shake off the idea of an artist capable only of crafting sugary ballads and upbeat tracks with trumpets and trombones. Yet the reality is different: Like all artists, Collins has had his ups and downs, and what I want to review is a beautiful, very beautiful album!

"Both Sides" is the end of an era for Collins, the supreme pinnacle of his poetic style. A poetic style that began with "No Jacket Required", continued with "But Seriously", and culminated precisely with "Both Sides". Whereas the first two albums are much less poetic and expressive than one might imagine, and in the first, not even the cover of "Tomorrow Never Now" is enough to redeem it. The surprises of "Both Sides" are many and all moving. Absolute music again here? Well, let the music tell us;

Collins' unmistakable drumming opens the curtain of "Both Sides of the Story" with an epic arrangement rare even for Collins... The voice is calm and relaxed but tense at the same time; it's the voice of someone who knows what they're saying, because this is Collins' most heartfelt album. The peak of the track is found in the middle: The voice increases in power until it subsides, and then only a muffled drum rumbles in the distance... but the voice resumes in a surge of hope emphasized by a gem: a small bagpipe chord that grows, reaches its peak along with the voice, and everything fades into the most extreme poignancy. Well, two years ago my 92-year-old grandmother passed away, may her soul rest in peace; when I listen to this piece, I wish she were still here... sorry, but if it's almost impossible to explain in words what absolute music is, I'll try this way, perhaps with better chances.

"Everyday" is a run through a field of weeds, still free from real estate speculation. But what dominates the album is undoubtedly the sense of the epic, as in the beautiful "Survivors", "Survivors in the night," it says, and how many things that can mean. Also worth mentioning are the ballads where the drums always play a leading role, but always elegantly. To conclude, it must be said that the final triad deserves a place of its own: They are three expressive pillars that fit perfectly with one another. "There's a Place for Us," is apparently a languid ballad, yet beneath this veneer, there's also a sense of poignancy like the one that dominates the entire album. A sensual yet almost religious bass. The voice, towards the end, has a surge of self-assertion, and then fades almost into resignation but... Launched with full trumpet, so to speak, the majestic "We Wait and We Wonder", Beautiful, very beautiful, masterfully constructed, Collins' voice is the sun in the sky, a bass from archangels, an instrumental part with a reprise that gives chills, what more could we ask for? Nothing. And then, closing with the graceful "Please Come Out Tonight", come out with me tonight. And I think of a friend, a woman, a dog, a cat, is there more beyond our lives...

One last note: Collins played all the instruments.