Customer Reviews

Hello I Must Be Going

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In my review for ...But Seriously, I implied that his 1989 chart-topper was the only essential Collins album. I was wrong. "Hello, I must be going!" is a great collection of songs, and one in the eye for anyone who thinks all PC songs sound alike. The variety here of moods, tempos and ideas is striking. I've never done this before on an amazon review, but here is a track by track analysis:

"I Don't Care Anymore": Listen to this one in the car on the way home from work--it will make you feel much better. Make sure to scream along with Phil. A hard rocker, rather In the Air Tonight-ish with its drums...still heard occasionally on classic rock stations.

"I Cannot Believe it's True": As a whole, HIMBG is less funky than Face Value, but PC brings the funk on this song. Great performance by the Phenix Horns. Good song, but my least favorite on the album (that should tell you something about the album!)

"Like China": Can Phil rock? This is one of PC's only songs with a straightforward guitar riff rock beat...and also, a good hook and great lyrics from Phil--tells a story of a young cockney lad (Phil) who promises to hold his young inexperienced girlfriend "like china."

"Do You Know Do You Care": Phil is phenomenal when he's pissed off (see In the Air Tonight, Domino, and track one of this same album!)...this is a slow and powerful song filled with rage at Phil's ex-wife (let us all prey to have better luck with marriage than Phil). Great when you're in the mood to let off some steam.

"You Can't Hurry Love": Okay, I don't have to fill you in on this one cos you all know it. A great pop song and ode to Motown.

"It Doesn't Matter to Me": Another good pop song from Phil with a nice hook and appealing horns, but all together one of the less special songs on the album. A very happy song, considering the title and the subject matter.

"Thru These Walls": PC used to introduce this song with, "This is for all you perverts out there," or something to that effect. A slow drum machine rhythm sets the tone for this one, which has Phil enjoying listening to a couple make love through the walls (presumably his ex-wife and her lover). An interesting song.

"Don't let him steal your heart away": When Phil brings the funk, he's good. When he's pissed off, he's even better...but he's at his best with plaintive, deeply personal compositions where we all feel the same emotions he's feeling. This song is a perfect example of the latter.

"The West Side": The funk is back! A driving and powerful musical piece, much better than its Face Value companion piece, "Hand in Hand."

"Why Can't it Wait Till Morning": Another one of those plaintive, deeply personal compositions...a great one to just close your eyes and listen to, it ends the album on a positive yet solemn note.

HIMBG is an absolutely essential album for anyone who likes Phil Collins' music, and is a Godsend for those of us who have come to appreciate the magic of his voice and his works.

Phil Collins dedicated "Hello, I Must Be Going" to his wife and children, "who put up with it all!" When the music starts, the divorce and family strife they put up with comes to blinding light and sound.

Over war drums, thunderous synth lines and wall-tearing horns (the EWF horn section is more pronounced here, sounding like Chicago's and less effective) Collins washes his hands of previous mistakes. "Let me by!" he shouts in "I Don't Care Anymore." "I've got better things to do with my time!"

Like similar albums following well-known breakups (Sinatra's "Wee Small Hours," Marvin Gaye's "Here, My Dear") this deals with the stages and emotions of separation: denial ("I Cannot Believe It's True") regret ("What else can I do but say I was wrong?" Phil asks in "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away") accusation (the menacing drum/synth workout "Do You Know, Do You Care?") paranoia ("Thru These Walls" features a variation of "In The Air Tonight" drum fills) and finally, apathy (the previously mentioned "I Don't Care Anymore")

The songs closing the first and second halves of the LP balm the salted wounds. Collins' faithful rendition of "You Can't Hurry Love" seeks solace not only in parental advice, but in the radio classics of his youth (Motown is saluted in the liner notes, and Phil returned to these songs in Genesis encores). The gentle piano ballad "Why Can't It Wait 'Til Morning?" (later covered with Fourplay), features Phil sweetly singing, "You're going nowhere without me." It's a stark lyric beautifully performed, much like "Hello! I Must Be Going" itself. Success would evolve this anger into impishness helped Collins create his public image; meaning, regardless of future disappointments, this will remain Phil Collins' most angrily sung set ever. Recommended with balled fists when vulnerable.

On his second solo album, 1982's "Hello, I Must Be Going," Phil Collins shows two sides to himself: the happier man with a new ladylove in his life (the woman named Jill in the album credits), and the bitter man saying his last goodbyes to his first ex-wife. The end result is a powerful album, mixing tough rock with delectible pop, with a generous dose of horn-driven jazz/pop as well. It's one of Phil's best discs. The big hit from the album is Phil's faithful cover of the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love," and while Phil does great justice to the song, it's his own compositions that really stand out here. The angry "I Don't Care Anymore" & "Do You Know, Do You Care" are brilliant, powerful songs, with Phil's harsh lyrics, vocal & drumming attacks on both making these songs among his greatest recorded moments. "Like China" is a very humorous song (with Phil sporting a Cockney accent) about a young bloke who wants to make it with his girlfriend, but she keeps turning him down. The album's secret weapon, however, is the atmospheric "Thru These Walls," an outstanding song about a lonely man in desperate need of physical contact, but has to make do with hearing his next-door neighbors making love. It's one of Phil's strongest pieces. "I Cannot Believe It's True" & "It Don't Matter To Me" are both fine, upbeat jazz poppers, and "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away" is an excellent mid-tempo ballad. Phil includes a great jazz rave-up with the instrumental "The West Side," and closes the album with the beautiful love song, "Why Can't It Wait 'Til Morning." Every song here is first-rate, as is Phil's work & production. "Hello, I Must Be Going" is a terrific second effort from Phil Collins.

Here is another one I used to play over and over and over again when I was in high school. If I wanted to get really depressed I would play Face Value, if I wanted lift myself back up again, if only for a short time, it was Hello. This album has it all, ups and downs, instrumentals, jazzy tunes, catchy tunes, everything. I love I Cannot Believe it's True and am so happy it was never released as a single for it is another song I can relate to so well. You need this one fill your Phil collection.

First, to Editorial Reviewer Dan Durchholz - nice work, but one big boo-boo: Phil had not divorced Jill at the time of this album - he had just married her, and remained married to her for many years. He cited her in the notes of this album because he loved her. The bitter songs referred to his ex (Andrea), who reportedly cheated on him with her interior decorator, spawning several songs from Genesis' Duke album (e.g. Misunderstanding, Please Don't Ask) and much of Face value and this album.

This is a fine album with some great grooves, some bitter diatribes, some manic-happy-pop and heartbreaking ballads. Phil hits his best R&B a la Collins feel in this record, for my money. I Cannot Believe It's True is a gem. Great, great drums all around. But why "Like China" even made it out of a disturbed sleep, much less into the studio, I can't fathom.

More hits than misses - for the detractors, Phil does what he sets out to do with a higher batting average than most. Prog-rockers beware - unless you like lighter fare as well.

One of Phil's Best, I Don't Care anymore being one of the best songs, The Semi-Instrumental "Westside" being a relaxing type jazz song. Like China is A Catchy Tune, I cannot believe it's true. Cockney rhyme sounding.Cool Cd to own.

I didn't think Collins could top his first solo effort, but he sure did - even in his selection of Mowtown tunes. It's clear that Collins still had a lot to say about his failed first marriagne, and-or relationships themselvses - hence, the pleading "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away," and "Why Can't It Wait Till Morning," or even the shock of "I Cannot Believe It's True". And his restrengthening is apparent in "It Don't Matter To Me," and "Do You Know, Do You Care". But Collins begins to show a side that will be expected from him on future efforts, both of his own and Genesis. His self deprecating edge in "Like China" and the quirkiness of "Thru These Walls" animates this and future efforts more economically than some of the earlier Genesis epics used to, and that formula will become a familiar staple. And you'll get debate over his cover of "You Can't Hurry Love" and whether he does it better or not, though even Collins would never purport to exceed the Supremes. This is the one Collins album that is easy to listen from beginning to end. Great R&B backed by a great brass section (The Hot Tub Club toured with him on this effort), outstanding ballads and great early 80s pop. "No Jacket Required" will come close, but no future albums will have as broad an appeal. The dependence upon video to promote CDs for the next decade will affect the way Collins music is received in the future, and how he presents it to an extent. And fortunately (or unfortunately), Collins will no longer have his divorce to rely on for emotional depth. I must say (selfishly) that musically, that's too bad.

When I wrote a review of another album and referred to it as a redheaded stepchild, I realized that this album may be the mother of redheaded stepchild albums - albums that become ignored by their creators and by the listening public. Once again, we have an album that gets only one song on the greatest hits - despite being chock full of some of the finest work of the artist's career. "I Don't Care Anymore" improves upon "In the air Tonight" in every way - lyrics that are angrier and more concise, music that cuts to the chase with intense, stark drumming from the get-go. Feeling ticked off? Try screaming along to this in your car. "I Cannot Believe it's True" and "It Don't Matter to Me" both use uptempo, EW&F brass to punctuate driving songs from the edge of a breakup. "Don't let him Steal your Heart Away" is one of the best songs ever to describe the too-little-too-late feelings of accountability that crop up as a relationship turns to dust. It's heartbreaking. "Do you know, Do you Care" and "Thru These Walls" are dark and scary (that's right, Phil Collins making music that is dark and scary!), plunging us into the depths of a troubled mind, frought with anger and paranoia. Particularly the unsettling "Walls," which I've heard is either about how much Phil misses his kids or a fictionalized account of a separated guy deposed to a hotel room, being emotionally tortured by the sounds of a couple's lovemaking coming from the room next door. Whichever, it's a creepy, pervy-sounding song. I don't want to give the impression that listening to this is an overly depressing affair. The musicianship is first-rate, the tune selection varied. It's the last of Phil's deeply personal, handmade albums. Within a couple years, he'd get married, find happiness and dominate the world as one of the biggest pop stars of the decade (Really. The year Phil had in '85 is possibly trumped only by Michael Jackson's '83). He'd never return to this kind of introspective, nakedly personal work. This is a rock-solid offering that deserves to be heard.

Phil Collins second album was not as moody as the first but it was still quite bitter. However, he discovered his "soul" here and it came to influent him during the whole 80's. Although many songs are still about his divorce, the sound is happier here overall and the soul roots come through with songs like "You Can't Hurry Love" and "It Doesn't matter" but it wasn't until the next abum "No Jackets Required" that he had his big break for real.

"I Don't Care Anymore" is very bitter, a good breakup song I guess but otherwise You'll feel bad about listening to it. It's slow with percussions and it's about "trying to not care about the Ex". Lyrics like this "Don't care what you say, We never played by the same rules anyway. I won't be there anymore, Get out of my way". Second song is called "I Cannot Believe it true" it's a catchy soul uptempo song with the trademark horns. Forget the pessimistic lyrics but enjoy the song that is wonderful and full of joy. "like China" starts off with a cool guitar riff that goes on throgh the whole song, it feautures percussion and it one of the most rocky songs here. For some reason I always thought that Collins sounds very odd when he sings here, like he got a accent?. The song is about the same thing as the first 2. "Do You know, Do You care" follows the same formula, and it's a slow song with percussion, Collins lyrics echoes through the song.

"You Can't Hurry Love" is a note for note cover of Supreme's classic 60's hit. It proved Collins soul that was going to be something that he kept through his career. "It doesn't Matter" is yet another soulish song that feautures horns and a happy feeling, although the songs meaning may not be. A highlight on this album for sure and the horn playing is fantastic. "Thru These Walls" is a slow ballad like song and perhaps the most simular song to "In the Air", not the same emotional feeling but the drum playing is simular. "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart" is another ballad with piano. Reminds me abit of Elton John. "The West Side" continues the tradition of instrumentals, Sometimes music says more then words, this is fantastic with beautiful horns, just enjoy!. "Why Can't It wait til Morning" ends the album with a piano ballad.

Overall, Phil Collins discovers soul. While there weren't that many single hits here there's alot of beautiful songs just the same. The instruments especially proves his musicality and the music adds variety to the album. Perhaps abit too many bitter lyrics but an wonderful album to listen to, wether you're moody or happy.

this is definitely a "listen straight through" collins album, which stands up over time because little of it was played to death by the radio (except YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE, but that's a classic on its own). these are a lot of songs about the pain of his divorce, similar in theme to songs from Face Value, except more upbeat, better integration of horns, drums, and 80s power pop ballads that foreshadowed the commercial triumph of No Jacket Required 2 years later. I DON'T CARE ANYMORE is reminiscent of In the Air Tonight, a little darker and more bitter. songs like DO YOU KNOW, DO YOU CARE? and IT DON'T MATTER TO ME are hardly hidden in their meaning but sound good. some of the better gems on here are LIKE CHINA (teen professing his love for his virgin girlfriend) and I CANNOT BELIEVE IT'S TRUE (the EWF horns sound great) while fans of his slow ballads will enjoy WHY CAN'T IT WAIT TIL MORNING and DON'T LET HIM STEAL YOUR HEART AWAY. another standout tune is the eerie THRU THESE WALLS, will stay with you long after you hear it, about alienation (but not related as literally to the divorce issue that dominates). THE WEST SIDE is an amazing, excellent instrumental piece that shows his talent as a songwriter and drummer. Overall, all 10 songs on here mix well and the album as a whole is great phil collins. And just think, he wrote or co-wrote this album, plus Face Value, as well as 3 genesis albums (Duke, Abacab and Genesis) in an amazing 3-year musical blitz that i feel was his peak.