Since Phil Collins is no longer a viable commercial artist he's free to basically do whatever he wants as far as new music releases are considered. His 2010 brainstorm of covering oldies from all over the musical map (Mowtown) is the chosen direction. Now this is pretty typical for established artists in the current musical climate as they have a better chance to get attention doing this then they would with original music.
Collins doesn't dig very deep for most of the albums material he seems happy to cover most of the American Idol audition catalog for the most part. His renditions of Stevie Wonder's "Uptight" and the over exposed Martha & The Vandella's "Heatwave" are not bad just boring because of how much we've heard them over the last few years. The album is full of Hitsville USA stuff and another done to death tune "Ain't Too Proud To Bed" which lacks the powerful rasp of the original and again another American Idol song which has been done to varying degrees of quality by the likes of George Huff, Michael Sarver & Scott Savol to name a few.
If you love this material sung by a guy who's long past his best day as a vocalist then bite but really you can find better version by unknowns on Youtube to enjoy not to mention the excellent originals still readily available online and in stores everywhere. I think the album really hits a low point when the cover of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" came across my speakers. He just can't cut it when he sings the lyrics although the band sounds fantastic. His version of the excellent classic rock masterpiece "You Really Got A Hold On Me" pales in comparison to the Beatles near perfect reading and the otherwise best overall version by Mickey Gilley.
He then pulls out the genious choices of "Jimmy Mack", "Nowhere To Run" and "Dancing In The Streets" as if we aren't pretty much bored of all those songs from their use in film and television not to mention oldies radio. To bring review to an end I will say this 'Heard This All Before, Done Much Better'.
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