No Jacket Required
	Produced by Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham
	Released on February 1985
	UK CHART POSITION #1 . . . US CHART POSITION #1 . . . 7x PLATINUM RECORD . . . GRAMMY FOR RECORD OF THE YEAR, 1985
	Find it at GEMM
81240 cover

N o Jacket Required topped the US and UK charts, so it must be a great album, right? Not necessarily. Sure it’s got some great songs on it, but for the first time filler raises its ugly head. On tracks like “Only You And I Know,” “I Don’t Wanna Know” and “Who Said I Would,” the feeling is one of much ado about nothing. Even the hits have their Achilles heel; what exactly are “Sussudio” and “Don’t Lose My Number” about anyway? On the plus side, “One More Night” is a terrific love song, smooth and subdued like “This Must Be Love” only better. And “Inside Out” is as well-crafted a song as “I Missed Again.” From a musical standpoint, parts of No Jacket Required haven’t aged well, particularly the dance-oriented synthesizer effects. The reliance on drum machines is also a little disappointing, following the same path as Steve Winwood into electronic blandness. And, as long as I’m complaining, the socially responsible posing of “Take Me Home” and “Long Long Way To Go” are better left to Sting. Maybe these are the complaints of a Phil Collins fan reluctant to share his hero with the hoi polloi, or simply someone who’s reached their saturation point for the ubiquitous star. In embracing the spotlight, however, the dark character studies and Peter Gabriel-isms that made his first two albums feel substantive are sorely missed. No Jacket Required is good product, but song for song it may be the lightest solo album he’s recorded.

81240 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. SUSSUDIO    (Phil Collins)    4:23
2. ONLY YOU KNOW AND I KNOW    (Phil Collins/Daryl Stuermer)    4:20
3. LONG LONG WAY TO GO    (Phil Collins)    4:20
4. I DON'T WANNA KNOW    (Phil Collins/Daryl Stuermer)    4:12
5. ONE MORE NIGHT    (Phil Collins)    4:47
6. DON'T LOSE MY NUMBER    (Phil Collins)    4:46
7. WHO SAID I WOULD    (Phil Collins)    4:01
8. DOESN'T ANYBODY STAY TOGETHER ANYMORE    (Phil Collins/Daryl Stuermer)    4:18
9. INSIDE OUT    (Phil Collins)    5:14
10. TAKE ME OUT    (Phil Collins)    5:51
11. (*CD bonus track:) WE SAID HELLO, GOODBYE

CREDITS

PHIL COLLINS -- vocals, Roland 909, keyboards, bass, drums, Linn drum machine, Simmonds, Roland 808 percussion, backing vocals, vocoder, kalimba, album design
LEE SKLAR -- bass, piccolo bass
DARYL STEURMER -- guitars, keyboards
Gary Barnacle -- sax (4), sax solo (7)
David Frank -- keyboards, mini moog bass, DMX
Peter Gabriel -- backing vocals (10)
Arif Mardin -- string arrangements
Don Myrick -- sax, sax solo
The Phoenix Horns -- horns
Sting -- backing vocals (3,10)
Helen Terry -- backing vocals (10)
Tom Tom 84 -- horn arrangements
John Jacobs -- engineer
Hugh Padgham -- engineer

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