Phil Collins Sings Through Darkness and Into the Light

Phil Collins has lived to see the light, and he wants everyone to feel it.

On Monday at the Pond of Anaheim, the singer and drummer worked through his catalog of hits, peaking with the dark, pulsating dread of the 16-year-old “In the Air Tonight” but focusing on the mostly exuberant material from his 1996 album, “Dance Into the Light.”

It proved to be a buoyant, feel-good show and a sure-fire crowd pleaser. Over a 27-year career in music, Collins has learned what his audience needs. But the main question the concert posed was whether the Englishman can regain the commercial clout he enjoyed in the ‘80s.

The Phil Collins who delivered airy, world-music pop on Monday wasn’t the Collins the audience had come to see. After establishing a style, as Collins did with his 10 Top 10 hits in the ‘80s, it’s hard to grow in new directions and bring the audience with you.

Monday’s show, the last of Collins’ U.S. tour, was all giddy fun and full of surprises, reflecting the high spirits of the “Dance” album, a product of his current post-divorce romance. Confetti and streamers shot out from the stage during the ridiculously lightweight “Sussudio.” Collins plucked a child (apparently a band member’s son) from the audience, and he occasionally traveled into the crowd.

As usual, he was charming and likable, joking with the audience from his circular state-of-the-art stage in the center of the arena and delivering plaintive ballads--”Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” and “One More Night”--that could have been well-wrought love letters.

It was when Collins tried to get political that he failed tremendously. At the show’s lowest point, he delved into a slick, rousing, joyful version of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” and it was like hearing Jimi Hendrix as Muzak or Bob Marley being used to sell beer.

Collins is far more interesting as an artist when he is unhappy and self-absorbed than when he is delivering rousing political anthems or reveling in world music, however sweet the rhythms and the melodies of that music may be.