Anthony Phillips – Anthology – CD review

Rock, pop, classic, acoustic and electric guitar, piano, keyboard and vocals… Anthony Phillips is good at that and many things besides. He has proved his abilities and broad repertoire on more than twenty records under his own name. ‘New fans’ who would like to get to know his music usually find it difficult to pick an album to start from such a number of albums. In 1985 Anthony Phillips released a compilation album called Harvest Of The Heart that consisted of material from the first four Private Parts & Pieces albums, but Ant has written lots of new material since then and, besides, Harvest Of The Heart was released on vinyl only and is quite difficult to find. A solution to all these problems has now been published.

The Anthology album presents a carefully chosen selection of Ant’s career and music. Classics such as Um & Aargh, Prelude ’84, God If I Saw Her Now or The Women Were Watching are included as well as more recent pieces (e.g. Unheard Cry or Tears On A Rainy Day). It is difficult, of course, to find a selection of songs that everybody likes, and some fans may therefore miss their favourite Anthony Phillips songs on this compilation.

It may be noted that the previously ultra-rare Anthem From Tarka
(single mix) was included instead of an extract from the Tarka
movements. For Lights On The Hill the instrumental version from
PP&P 4 was used. It would have been nice to hear the hitherto
unreleased version with vocals called Walls & Bridges on the
Anthology. Walls & Bridges is one of the songs from the 1984
musical Alice Ant wrote the music for. There are, alas, no completely
unreleased pieces on the album. Such a bonus track could have been an
additional incentive to buy this release, but everybody, be they a fan
or a newcomer, should have this album.

The booklet and the design itself are remarkable pieces of art
themselves. It is another job well done by Helmut Janisch who already
designed the lyric book. The front cover is a feast for the eyes! It is
a collage from various elements (animals, people and other objects) from
previous cover artworks by Peter Cross based on the Private Parts &
Pieces cover. Wholly new is the coat of arms Peter Cross designed
especially for the Anthology. The rear is another collage, consisting –
obviously – only of elements from the back of various Anthony Phillips
albums. Inside the booklet there are remarks on the pieces as well as
an informative text about Ant’s career that completes this great
release. Never before has it been so easy to get to know the musical
world of Anthony Phillips as with this album.

by Bernd Zindler

translated by Martin Klinkhardt