Phil Collins "...Hits"

Hits (stylized as ...Hits), released in 1998 and again in 2008, following the success of "In the Air Tonight" on the Cadbury ad campaign, is the first greatest hits album by English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins. The collection included fourteen Top 40 hits, including seven American number 1 songs, spanning from the albums Face Value (1981) through Dance into the Light (1996). One new Collins recording, a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors", also appeared on the collection and was a popular song on adult contemporary stations. Hits was also the first Phil Collins album to include four songs originally recorded for motion pictures (all of them U.S. number 1 hits) as well as his popular duet with Philip Bailey, "Easy Lover" (a UK number 1 hit).

In 1998, the album reached number 1 in the United Kingdom and number 18 in the United States. On 4 August 2008, it became the number 1 album on the New Zealand RIANZ album chart. In July 2012, the album re-entered the U.S. charts, reaching number 6 on the Billboard 200 when the album price was deeply discounted very briefly by Amazon.com. It has sold 3,429,000 in the US as of July 2012.

The compilation's cover features stylized versions of the cover art for Collins' first six albums, the collection's primary sources of songs.

There are other greatest hits compilations of Phil Collins songs. A collection of Collins's more romantic songs were released on a two-disc compilation titled Love Songs: A Compilation... Old and New. 1999's Turn It On Again: The Hits, 2005's Platinum Collection and 2014's R-Kive were greatest hits collections by Collins' original group, Genesis. Most recently, Collins released the 2016 compilation The Singles as part of his "Take a Look at Me Now" album remaster series.

Track listing

...Hits – Standard edition

1. "Another Day in Paradise" Phil Collins ...But Seriously (1989) 5:22
2. "True Colors" Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly previously unreleased 4:34
3. "Easy Lover" (with Philip Bailey) Phil Collins/Philip Bailey/Nathan East Chinese Wall (1984) 5:02
4. "You Can't Hurry Love" Holland-Dozier-Holland Hello, I Must Be Going! (1982) 2:52
5. "Two Hearts" Phil Collins, Lamont Dozier Buster (1988) 3:24
6. "I Wish It Would Rain Down" Phil Collins ...But Seriously (1989) 5:28
7. "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" Phil Collins Against All Odds (1984) 3:25
8. "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven" Phil Collins, Daryl Stuermer ...But Seriously (1989) 4:51
9. "Separate Lives" (with Marilyn Martin) Stephen Bishop White Nights (1985) 4:06
10. "Both Sides of the Story" Phil Collins Both Sides (1993) 6:37
11. "One More Night" Phil Collins No Jacket Required (1985) 4:46
12. "Sussudio" Phil Collins No Jacket Required (1985) 4:21
13. "Dance into the Light" Phil Collins Dance into the Light (1996) 4:22
14. "A Groovy Kind of Love" Toni Wine, Carole Bayer Sager Buster (1988) 3:29
15. "In the Air Tonight" Phil Collins Face Value (1981) 5:30
16. "Take Me Home" Phil Collins No Jacket Required (1985) 5:52

Total length: 01:14:01

Track 1 features David Crosby on backing vocals.

Track 2 features Babyface on backing vocals, keyboard and drum programming, and Sheila E on percussion.

Track 3 features Philip Bailey on vocals.

Tracks 4, 11-13, 15 feature Daryl Stuermer on guitar.

Track 6 features Eric Clapton on guitar.

Tracks 8, 13 feature Nathan East on bass.

Track 9 features Marilyn Martin on vocals.

Track 16 features Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Helen Terry on backing vocals.

The original pressing of the album lists "Another Day in Paradise" with an incorrect running time of 6:22 and "One More Night" with a running time of 5:12. This is not the case for the Virgin pressing.

Pet Shop Boys "Release"

Release is the eighth studio album by the English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was first released in 2002.

After the release of their previous studio album, Nightlife, it was originally planned that they would release a greatest hits collection in the autumn of 2000 with the two new tracks "Positive Role Model" and "Somebody Else's Business". While recording the new songs for the hits collection it was decided to produce a full studio album instead.

In the UK it charted at number 7, in Germany at number 3. On its first release, a limited run of metallic effect embossed sleeves were available in a choice of four colours: grey, blue, pink or red. In the US, this limited run also came with a bonus CD including remixes and new tracks. The artwork was designed by Greg Foley of the New York design group and magazine publishers Visionaire and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.

The album marked a significant departure from previous work, being apparently guitar—and piano—driven. However the album was made like their previous albums with most tracks mainly programmed on computers; however the sampled or synthesised guitars and drum sounds chosen often sound "real" and the synthesisers always present are sometimes used to sound like guitars (the solo in "Birthday Boy", for instance, or the opening figure of "Home and Dry"). Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr was brought in later on in the sessions to play real electric and acoustic guitars on seven of the album's ten tracks in London, with "Home and Dry" being completed in Dublin, Ireland. Apart from the track "London", recorded in Berlin with producer Chris Zippel, Pet Shop Boys produced the album themselves and then commissioned Michael Brauer (who mixed the first two albums by fellow Parlophone artists Coldplay) to mix it.

The original version of the album had eleven tracks but "I Didn't Get Where I Am Today" was removed from the album before release and later became a bonus track on the 2004 single "Flamboyant". Other tracks recorded during the sessions for the album which ended up as B-sides are "Between Two Islands", "Searching for the Face of Jesus", "Sexy Northerner" and "Always". Another track, "Time on My Hands", appeared on the 2003 release, Disco 3.

The directors for all three music videos for the album's singles are photographers by trade: Wolfgang Tillmans directed "Home and Dry", Bruce Weber directed "I Get Along" (following his previous work on the "Being Boring" and "Se a vida é" videos), and Martin Parr directed "London". The Tillmans video, consisting almost entirely of footage of mice filmed at Tottenham Court Road tube station in the London Underground, is considered by some to have significantly undermined the commercial potential of the lead single, due to being deemed nearly unplayable by MTV and other music video channels.

Perhaps partly because of the modest commercial success of this album, and perhaps partly because of the habit of distancing themselves musically from their most recent work, Tennant and Lowe have since returned to their dance roots. One year after the release of Release, Pet Shop Boys released Disco 3 which included remixes of some of the songs from Release along with new material that they were working on at the time of writing/producing material for Release.

The album re-entered the UK Album Chart at number thirty in 2017 following the album's Further Listening 2001-2004 reissue.

Track listing

Release

1. "Home and Dry" – 4:21
2. "I Get Along" – 5:49
3. "Birthday Boy" – 6:26
4. "London" – 3:46
5. "E-Mail" – 3:55
6. "The Samurai in Autumn" – 4:17
7. "Love Is a Catastrophe" – 4:50
8. "Here" – 3:15
9. "The Night I Fell in Love" – 5:04
10. "You Choose" – 3:10

Pet Shop Boys "Nightlife"

Nightlife is the seventh studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was released on 8 October 1999 by Parlophone. After the release and promotion of their previous album, Bilingual, Pet Shop Boys started work with playwright Jonathan Harvey on the stage musical that eventually became Closer to Heaven (at one stage during the writing process, the musical was given the name of Nightlife). Pet Shop Boys soon had an album's worth of tracks and decided to release the album Nightlife as a concept album and in order to showcase some of the songs that would eventually make it into the musical.

The album incorporates a variety of musical influences, including hard trance on the Rollo-produced "For Your Own Good" and "Radiophonic"; dance-pop on "Closer to Heaven" and "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More"; disco pastiche on "New York City Boy"; and country music on "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk". The track "Happiness Is an Option" is based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's classical piece Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14.

The album was a moderate commercial success, selling 1.2 million copies globally. It reached number seven on the UK Albums Chart (their first studio album not to reach the top five) and only spent three weeks in the chart at the time, but re-entered at number twenty-nine in 2017 following the album's Further Listening 1996–2000 reissue. It also became their lowest charting studio album in the US, reaching number 84. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics.

"In Denial" is a duet featuring Kylie Minogue. It was seen as a risk by critics because this project came at a time when Minogue was experiencing low record sales and did not have her own record contract. Pet Shop Boys had previously written a song titled "Falling" for Minogue's 1994 album Kylie Minogue. The same year as Nightlife's release, Minogue also signed to Parlophone and released her hugely successful Light Years album in 2000. Minogue would later sing "In Denial" on her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour, with Tennant's pre-recorded vocals being played as part of the duet while Minogue sang live.

For the promotion of the album, the band adopted a stark new appearance, designed in consultation with theatre designer Ian McNeil. Now, the duo ubiquitously appeared wearing thick, dark eyebrows, inspired by Kabuki theatre; yellow or orange wigs in a variety of hairstyles, inspired by the punk subculture (especially several spiked wigs); and black sunglasses. This was supported by a series of outfits in dark, muted colours, the most deviant of which incorporated culottes, inspired by the attire of samurai, instead of trousers. Photographs involving the costumes were often set in urban environments; the Midland Grand Hotel in Kings Cross, London was used as the setting to debut the look. The costumes were used for promotional photographs, the album cover and liner notes, all the single covers, as well as the Nightlife Tour.

The music video for "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore" showed Tennant and Lowe being transformed into their new appearances, though in a fantastical manner: they are operated on by medical laboratory machines, then covered in talcum powder and dressed by monks in a ritual-like manner. Finally, they are given dogs on leashes and released into a "different world", where everyone else is also dressed in exactly the same way. Conceptualised among the band members, McNeil, and director Pedro Romhanyi, the video was created to showcase the costumes. It was visually influenced by the films THX 1138 (1971) in the initial transformation sequence (copying many of its shots and props precisely); Ridicule, in the ritualistic dressing-up scene; 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in the decor of the living room with an illuminated floor; and A Clockwork Orange (1971), in the outdoor urban setting.

According to Tennant, the costumes helped him to distance himself from the songs, adding to the impersonal nature of Nightlife. In other interviews, he explained that they played into his belief in the need for pop stars to have "bigger than life" public images, and were a reaction against the "naturalistic" look of the 1990s.

Effort was also spent on designing the tour's visuals, with sets designed by deconstructivist architect Zaha Hadid. The stage was modular, and could fit in differently-sized venues and be rearranged by the backing singers throughout each concert.

Track listing

All tracks written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, except where noted.

No. Title Producer(s) Length

"For Your Own Good" 5:13

"Closer to Heaven" 4:06

"I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More" 5:09

"Happiness Is an Option" 3:48

"You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" 3:11

"Vampires" 4:43

"Radiophonic" 3:31

"The Only One" 4:21

"Boy Strange" 5:09

"In Denial" (duet with Kylie Minogue) 3:20

"New York City Boy"  5:15

"Footsteps" 4:16