The least impressive of
Anthony Phillips' albums-to-date,
Invisible Men was recorded on the cusp of a drive to force the artist to "cross over" -- which in 1983 meant absorbing all the ghastliest elements of the American AOR (
Yes,
Journey,
Starship) scene, and binding 11 songs into a pompous sax- and anthemic-keys-scarred landscape that might have sounded impressive pumping out of the radio, but really doesn't lend itself to repeated, or even subsequent listens. The songs themselves aren't so bad.
Phillips' ear for melody is as strong as ever, and his lyrics remain intriguing. The mock-Caribbean "Golden Bodies" is a lot of fun, and "Exocet" has a suitably doom-laden futuristic air to it, as a bank of sinister synths and treated drums rumble behind
Phillips' vocal. But still, the overall sense of the album is one of garish over-accomplishment, one of those cases where the head rules the heart, and technology takes over everything. The demos were probably great, though.