Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: September 4, 2020
Production: Robbie Bronnimann
Album length: 59.34 min
Genre: Art Pop/Progressive Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
Simon Collins is the son of the legendary Phil Collins. I’m opening with that line because it’s fair to assume the Slovenian audience pays little attention, if any at all, to what’s going on in the world of progressive rock these days. Maybe that opener will give us hope that someone gets through at least two paragraphs of this review and stops mourning the recently departed Riblje čorba bassist for a moment. Simon Philips is the son of the legendary Phil and living proof that the apple doesn’t fall (too) far from the tree. After shaking off his dependence on substances of “questionable effects”, with which he mostly propped up the South American economy, and pulling himself together, he decided to record a new album. A solo one. “Becoming Human” is thus the fourth solo studio album from Simon Collins. Before it came “All Of Who You Are” (2000), “Time For Truth” (2005) and “U-Catastrophe” (2008). Sound Of Contact released their one and only studio album, “Dimensionaut”, in 2013.
We were waiting on a new Sound of Contact album, sure, but still. »Becoming Human« is, plainly put, an album that will sound cozy and familiar to fans of Simon Collins’ apparently defunct band. If Phil sings in one Genesis song »…You’re not son of mine…«, then Simon Collins couldn’t be more of Phil’s son if he tried. Simon’s take on what musicality is and how a composition has to be built to grab you instantly, as well as his approach to making music, which on one hand carries a strong pop flavor and on the other shamelessly hangs out with rock elements, is akin to his father’s. Just updated for new times. It’s also no longer a surprise that Simon is a drummer too, and more. His voice at times is strikingly similar to his father’s. Literally similar.
For his new studio album, Simon has pulled together 11 strong tracks in total. If his father was making phenomenal pop rock in the eighties, the son has now updated that image by giving it a hefty dose of cerebral esotericism, gazing toward arrangements in the vein of the novelties made by, say, Steven Wilson. There’s an enormous amount of electronics at every turn of the album. A pile of intricate programming, sampling and looping finesse. Effects work, if you like. Guitars too, which love to be run through delay effects. Even though Collins has two guitarists on the album, the production doesn’t put the guitar playing front and center as pointedly as it does on Sound Of Contact. The lead guitar phrase really bristles only in Living In Silence, which makes it a lone swallow on the album in that respect. The basic rhythms are often simple and even dance-oriented, but underpinned by samples doing the job of extra percussion, which, as “undercurrent rhythms”, liven up the rhythmic framework. In I Will Be Waiting, Collins personally gives himself an extra “workout” on the drums, enlivening the closing section of the song with a ton of fills and rolls. Meanwhile countless programmed patterns whiz and rustle at every step of the arrangement structures. Synth curtains, similar to the Sound of Contact sound, give the sonic landscape a brilliant depth. The esoteric vocals, effected as if coming from the beyond, also develop a really beautiful falsetto at certain points. Metaphysical lyrics deepen the gripping appeal of vibrant moods that are hypnotic as well. The album carries elements of industrial too (Thoughts Become Matter, I Will Be Waiting).
What feels so good on this album is its distinct musicality, along with a skillfully internalized core of sonic experimentation that will thrill music gourmets and less demanding listeners with no taste for musical complexity alike. In the catchy choruses of the opening Becoming Human and the following The Universe Inside Me, two extremely strong openers, the album manages to build atmospheric intensity. The combination of high musical value and intense moods, in such a highly reconciled pairing, develops a magnetic pull on the listener. That’s why it’s easy to keep listening. All the way to the end. The first part of the album in particular is insanely infectious. In the second half Collins allows himself more experimenting, crowned by the longest composition, placed at the tail end of the album. That’s the nine-minute Dead Ends. Before it plays the exceptionally beautiful and sensual So Real. In its melancholic yearning it reaches the level of Ray Wilson’s singer-songwriter confessions (interestingly, yet another former Genesis singer).
Songs like Becoming Human, So Real, No Love or This is the Time would have no trouble getting radio play. They’re examples of brilliantly blending pop aesthetics, sonic experimentation and pronounced art rock charisma, and beyond their musical appeal, you can’t argue with them. Simon Collins has assembled an excellent crew of musicians in the studio. Out of himself he’s produced an exceptionally beautiful and special album. It’s close enough to the Sound of Contact album that it could have been a new Sound of Contact album, but Simon judged otherwise. This time, the meaning and reach of personal, confessional poetry tipped the scales.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Into The Fray
2. Becoming Human
3. The Universe Inside Of Me
4. Man Made Man
5. This Is The Time
6. Thoughts Become Matter
7. I Will Be Waiting
8. No Love
9. Living In Silence
10. 40 Years
11. So Real
12. Dead Ends
Line-up:
Simon Collins – vocals, drums, keyboards
Robbie Bronnimann – keyboards, programming, sound design
Gaz Williams – bass guitar
Kelly Avril Nordstrom – electric & acoustic guitars
Robin Boult – electric & acoustic guitars
