About

Along with being a multi-talented musician and an excellent songwriter, Phil Collins is one of the best live performers in rock. His songs usually stay true to their original form, he puts plenty of fire into his vocals, and best of all, every one of his in-concert qualities transfers well into album form. Serious Hits...Live! is a wonderful example of this, with not only 15 tracks, but 15 of Phil's best tracks, performed with an overcharged amount of enthusiasm and energy. There's an equal number of ballads and fast songs on the album, but even on the slow stuff, Collins puts a lot of passion and feeling into the lyrics. Efforts such as "One More Night," "Do You Remember?," and especially his best ballad, "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" are heartfelt and unhindered. His moods shift easily without any false emotional dramatics, which in turn enhances the ambience of the songs. The tracks are taken from a number of shows during his Serious Tour in 1990, but his performance level remains enthusiastic the whole album through and the change of venues goes unnoticed, which is again another plus. Collins is just as sharp on the quicker tunes, with some wonderful percussion filling in behind him. The drumming is stellar on "Easy Lover" and again on "Sussudio," but the album's only downfall is its lack of credits, leaving the identities of the musicians a mystery. The album makes up for this with a spine-chilling version of "In the Air Tonight" as Collins does a good job of capturing the song's haunting air, and from here the album switches gears with "You Can't Hurry Love" but doing so with undefiled perfection. Almost all of the songs here broke Billboard's Top Ten, and five of these tracks hit number one, which makes Serious Hits...Live! truly live up to it's name. — (via AOTY)

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Phil Collins‘ ‘Take a Look at Me Now’ reissue campaign continues with the reissue of 1990 live album Serious Hits… Live.

The album was a massive a success, since Collins was still at the height of his fame having enjoyed an incredible seven US number one singles (include a George Michael matching run of four in a row) by the end of the 1980s, three UK number ones and a number of chart-topping albums.

Even at the time, I remember thinking it was a mistake for the record label not to issue a studio hits compilation at this point – which would surely have sold zillions – but for whatever reason they didn’t and in fact it would be another eight years before they belated got around to it (with 1998’s …Hits) by which point Collins’ was known as the man who divorced his wife by fax (not actually true, apparently) and his singles were getting to number 77 stateside, not number one.

Nevertheless, back in 1990 there was a voracious appetite for all things Collins and people took what they were offered – Serious Hits… Live! sold over four million copies. The album was recorded at various stadium and arena shows throughout his seven-month Seriously, Live! World Tour. It includes performances of many of his huge hits including ‘In The Air Tonight,’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love,’ ‘Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now),’ ‘Easy Lover’ (with Philip Bailey) and ‘Another Day In Paradise.’

As well as Serious Hits… Live!, Rhino is also reissuing 1999’s A Hot Night In Paris, which is very much the other end of the spectrum, with the drummer and songwriter hoping you like his new direction, with jazzy instrumental performances of select songs from his solo discography as well as his work with Genesis (and a few covers thrown in). — (via Super Deluxe Edition)

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Remastered and reissued on black vinyl
2LP housed in gatefold sleeve

Vinyl Tracklist
A1 Something Happened On The Way To Heaven
A2 Against All Odds
A3 Who Said I Would
A4 One More Night
B1 Don't Lose My Number
B2 Do You Remember?
B3 Another Day In Paradise
B4 Separate Lives
C1 In The Air Tonight
C2 You Can't Hurry Love
C3 Two Hearts
C4 Sussudio
D1 A Groovy Kind Of Love
D2 Easy Lover
D3 Take Me Home

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Label: Atlantic / Warner
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Repress, Gatefold
Reissued: 2019 / Originally Released: 1990
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Ballad, Vocal

File under: School Of Rock
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