Laura Marcus Gives the Guaranteed Worst Review of Phil Collins You Will Ever Hear

Phil Collins said recently, "The horse is out of the stable and raring to go."

It's grand to see him coming back out of retirement.


The Guardian's Laura Marcus gave us her thinking about why some people do not like Phil Collins.

But I think that the Phil-hating stems from something more sinister. Phil Collins appeals to women. Men aren’t supposed to write heart-on-sleeve confessional songs; they’re especially not supposed to write about how a woman broke their heart by going off with someone else. It’s supposed to be all power messages – “She’s under my thumb” and “Stay away from Runaround Sue”. It was fine for Elvis Costello on his first solo album to write breakup songs declaring that he wasn’t angry when he plainly was. Costello was cool and appealed to a niche audience; he still does. Collins is mass market, though. Popular. And what could be less cool than a popular recording artist admitting he is heartbroken?

- Laura Marcus, The Guardian

Yep, you guessed it.  If you're not a Phil Collins fan then you must be some form of a Psychology Today reject about whom Ms Laura dreams in her dreary way.  She shows such a morass of misplaced musical sensibilities and an almost complete lack of knowledge of the breadth of what Phil Collins has done.  In much of the article she only writes about herself.  Fascinating.  (cough)

Yah, and she's likely thinking Genesis only had three lead performers (i.e. Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Tony Banks).

Gabriel??  Who is Peter Gabriel?

It was only a few days ago there was an article here about Phil Collins and check out his kick-ass drumming with Brand X.  (Blog:  "Malaga Virgen" - Brand X (video) - Somewhere Between Prog Rock and Fusion)

So, Ms Laura, have you ever even heard of Brand X?  (cough)


At the end of her rubbishy bit, Ms Laura thanks Phil Collins for the music he has given ... and she doesn't even know what it was.  Pfft.

And, yah, Ms Laura ... thanks for the fish.  We live for bathos.


Yah, this burns my ass.  Phil Collins has been in some of the best bands in prog rock and evolved from there into ballads which featured his singing.  To blow off all that with some kind of half-baked idea of internal male insecurities is a masterpiece of making any damn thing somehow about you.

Sorry as it does fry me as to regard Phil Collins as ... well, he was a ballad singer, right?

Kee-rist.