Phil Collins is celebrating a birthday today, so I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at a Genesis track that's been largely abandoned to time: 1983's "Just A Job To Do."

In music circles, the debate about whether Phil Collins finally started to sound like Genesis or whether they started to sound like him is one that never ends. That aside, it's fair to say the starting point for that discussion is with 1983's self-titled record.

The record spawned five singles, but today we're looking at one that didn't make that cut: "Just A Job To Do"

Love him or hate him, Collins' super power has lied in both the immediacy of his vocals and his ability to make a really complex song sound very simple. If you just put this on while doing something else (or listen in the car), it feels like a bazillion other rock songs, let alone a bunch of other Genesis tracks or even Collins' solo work.

Listen closely, though, and you'll hear multiple layers of sound happening. It's everything, all at once. What at first blush sounds like a guitar riff is actually a synthesizer, while the guitar itself is off doing its own thing. Same with the drum beat.

And the lyrics? The song's lasting legacy might be the debate about them. The easy answer is that it's sung from the POV of a hitman, but other theories-including England's involvement in The Falkland Island war- have been hashed out as well.

IMO, the hallmark of a good song is that it makes you stop and pay attention. "Just A Job to do" does the job and does it well.