#helloimustbegoing

Hello, I Must Be Going! - Phill Collins (1982)

Hello, I Must Be Going! is the second studio album by British drummer Phil Collins. When most of Collins solo albums were released, he was still heavily involved with prog-rock band, Genesis. After Peter Gabriel's departure from the band in the mid-to-late 70s, Collins took over as lead songwriter and singer. This personnel change and the fact that Collins was working on material for his solo career, contributed to their more "pop" sound that would dominate the charts for most of the 1980s and early 90s.

His first solo album, Face Value, released the previous year was a massive success with the single "In the Air Tonight." The lyrical and musical context was based around his eventual divorce from his wife. I think this album carries themes and has variations of the different emotions one may experience going through the divorce and of course after. There are instances where I think he directly expresses these songs to his now ex-wife and expresses his frustrations, heartache, and anger to her over their failed relationship. Collins is a highly skilled drummer as shown through his work with the early Genesis catalogue. Throughout his solo work, the drums do not make an appearance as one would think from a rock artist. The drums provide melodic counterpoint, almost to the point of creating a melodic ostinato. Another element that is prominent in his solo work is the use of brass instruments, there are often just shorts hits of brass instruments. Later in Collins career, he created an album of Motown covers that inspired him when he was younger. The use of brass could contribute to his background when he listened to Motown as a kid.

1. I Don't Care Anymore - Like I mentioned earlier, the song begins with a strong melodic drum pattern. Continuing without changing throughout the whole song. There is tension throughout the song, anger is prominent throughout this song even when the narrator claims that they "don't care anymore." The narrator has ended some relationship of some nature, could be platonic or romantic. Given Collins divorce, that was still a fresh moment in his mind, this song could be about an incident that happened with his wife after they split up. It seems that the other party has been going around and talking shit about the narrator, for lack of a better term. There is a slow burn to this song, ever so slightly rising higher and higher to the peak of his anger in this song. The last chorus proves this as he practically screams it, following my yelling "I don't care no more!" The song then dies back down, removing most of the instrumentation. The keyboards quiet down, the vocals repeat the phase, "no more," for the rest of the song. The drums are still playing the repeating pattern that essentially serve as a motif for the song.

2. I Cannot Believe It's True - Brass instrumentation shows dominance in this song. This is common for Collins catalogue. Lyrically speaking, I think this song represents the beginning of the narrators split from their partner. The first line is, "When I opened your letter yesterday," this could refer to divorce papers or even just a note expressing that they're done with the relationship. The emotions revolving around this song is hurt that the narrator can not believe that the person they thought they were going to be with forever is now pushing them out of their life. This isn't one of my favorite songs on this album, but it still fits in with the overall theme of the album and is a good song.

3. Like China - One of my absolute favorite songs on this album, it is more rock orriented song stylistically. Lyrically, the song portrays a poor young man who is in love with a women from a upper crust background. Her family disprooves of him because of his background, even when the narrator tries his best to impress them by wearing a tie around them. He explains to his significant other that she's the first one that he's ever loved and that "he's not like all the rest." Then the chorus starts, the narrator tells her that "he'll hold her like china," a popular expression in England. This could be a double inuendo, signifying that when they have sex he'll treat her like china, but also in their relationship he'll be really good to her.

4. Do You Know, Do You Care - Continuing with the ongoing theme of Collins divorce throughout the album, this song has an angry theme to it. This song almost reminds me of "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" from Genesis' 1986 album Invisible Touch. The delivery of the lyrics and the background drums shares similar elements with the song mentioned earlier. I honestly don't have much to say about this song, it isn't one of my favorites off of this album and it caries that tense grudge towards his former wife.

5. You Can't Hurry Love - Such a great song, just to start this off. A cover of The Supremes song from 1966, Motown had such a big impact on Collins musical career as he released an album of strictly Motown hits (totally recommend listening to that album by the way). He wanted to create that "Wall of Sound" that Phil Spector created during the 60s that was an innovative concept for music producing at the time.

6. It Don't Matter to Me - At this song in the album, to me, it's filler songs until it gets to the last couple of songs on this album. Again, I'll say that this is aimed towards his ex-wife. I love the sparatic horn hits, which is a typical element of Collins solo career.

7. Thru These Walls - The context of this song is the narrator hears his neighboors having sex through the walls of his apartment. This wouldn't be the only time where he portrays a creepy character, the Genesis song "Mama" gives me a similar vibe with a shady character as the narrator. He activily listens to his neighbors while they are having their intimate experience and imagines what they are doing based on what he is hearing.

8. Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away - This song begins with a piano intro, this starts the albums softer and more sorrowful side. The song portrays someone who has been cheated on and they are trying to convince their lover to stay with them. It's such a heart wrenching song and Collins has such emotion in his voice that makes this such a sad song.

9. The West Side - This is an instrumental piece, honestly just sounds like a jam session. I know this is how a lot of the Genesis songs were conceived in their early days.

10. Why Can't It Wait 'Til Morning - This song and "Like China" compete for my favorite song on this album. This mournful piano and strings make this song such a great ending for this album. I have two theories as to what the song represents. The first which is probably the most likely, two lovers have experienced something that will possibly be the end of their relationship, but tonight they just want to be together for the night and push their problems away for the rest of the night. I experienced something similar to this, I had a relationship end but we just wanted to be together for that night before everything changed the next morning and we really came to terms with what was happening. The other, this could possibly be the result of a one night stand or two friends that slept together and have to discuss what is the future of their relationship the next morning and do not want to think about it and just enjoy the blissfull night together.

Conclusion: One of my favorite albums by Phil Collins, the album is structured in a slow crescendo and quick descrescendo. A build to the peak of his anger and then takes a lementing element to the end of the album with two great songs that are so heartwrenching. It's so hard to articulate what makes this song so great. I highly recommend giving this album a listen.

Overall Theme of the Album: The after affects and emotions that are involved when going through a divorce/break up.

Rating: 9.5/10

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