Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Collins, Phil
Label: Atlantic Records
Release date: 09.02.1981
Running time: 47:49
Rating: 4/5
»Face Value« was the studio debut of Genesis’ legendary singer and drummer Phil Collins, and with it the start of a long and hugely successful solo career, in the middle of which he morphed from one of the most respected prog rock drummers/singers into a mass-market pop rock icon. Interestingly, Collins was the last member of the classic Genesis lineup to venture out on his own, after a brief episode with the jazz rock fusion attraction Brand X. At the same time he was still a member of Genesis, who had just released the commercially hugely successful album »Duke« (1980). Most of the songs on »Face Value« were written during the »Duke« sessions, and the two albums even share, each in ‘its own way’, the classic »Behind the Lines«.
Collins took his first solo steps in a rather bashful way, after American label Atlantic Records made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He didn’t have the faintest idea that his debut would be met with such enormous success right out of the gate, and that in the years to come he’d even outdo the commercial success of his ‘mother’ band’. The album spun off three hit singles (»In The Air Tonight«, »I Missed Again in »If Leaving Me Is Easy«), and he pulled off something very rare for a British musician, especially one who had spent most of his past career making distinctly experimental music: he quickly conquered the American market too.
»Face Value« contains an incredibly varied and broad palette of musical styles, ranging from r’n’b, Motown and funk-spiced pop rock, the kind Collins made throughout most of his later solo career, to instrumental jazz fusion and progressive rock, the two genres he’s still most admired for as a musician. In the period between becoming Genesis’ frontman in 1976 and the release of »Face Value«, Mr. Collins had come a long way as a singer since the days when he ‘only’ sang as a drummer, not a vocalist, on the 1971 Genesis ballad »For Absent Friends«. His first vocal steps actually go back even further, to his first band Flaming Youth. Over this time his voice went through an interesting mutation, from a perfect stand-in for Peter Gabriel to the r’n’b entertainer who burned himself into the collective memory of the masses in the mid-eighties.
His drumming on »Face Value« is at the enviable level you’d expect, although many who were used to his earlier prog rock exploits missed a bigger sense of improvisational adventure and held it against him a little that he leaned so often on programmed drums, or a drum machine, which was pretty unusual for a drumming great of his stature. Collins picked up this practice, hugely popular at the time, from his former Genesis comrade-in-arms Gabriel, and used it a few times with Genesis as well. While recording »Face Value« the legendary drummer brought in some old friends, among them longtime Genesis touring guitarist Daryl Stuermer, blues rock guitar legend Eric Clapton, cult violinist L. Shankar and former Weather Report bass grandmaster Alphonso Johnson. A rich horn section adds an extra shot of rhythm and blues and funky seasoning to individual tracks, while the strings busily take care of the orchestral arrangements.
The best-known and best-loved track on the album was definitely the hit single »In The Air Tonight«, a dark ballad inspired by Collins’ split from his first wife Andrea. She suddenly left him alone in his apartment in the middle of Vancouver, Canada in 1979, and it was a close call that Genesis didn’t fall apart over Phil’s broken heart. That’s an important detail, because for most of his songwriting career, and above all his solo career, Phil was at his strongest when he’d gone through some kind of romantic disappointment, which was usually an endless well of poetic inspiration. Almost all the lyrics on »Face Value« are inspired by that traumatic split, so it’s no surprise that (unhappy) love ballads dominate. The next ballad, »This Must Be Love«, which only became a fan favorite in later years, features a colorful percussion section and an exceptionally subtle melody that, carried on the wings of Phil’s mellifluous vocals, is tailor-made for singing more or less syrupy serenades. The completely rearranged, horn-soaked version of the »Duke« classic »Behind the Lines« picked up r’n’b influences on »Face Value« under heavy sway from Michael Jackson, who was clearly Collins’ main role model here. It was definitely a pretty fun experiment, but it never managed to outweigh the art rock brilliance of the Genesis original.
»The Roof Is Leaking« is a short but atmospherically intense ballad, where Collins’ suffering vocals are accompanied by piercing piano arrangements of his own making and slide guitar. It leads straight into the short but excellent prog rock instrumental »Droned«, which, mostly thanks to its vividly colorful percussion section and subtle piano arrangements, more than successfully awakens Collins’ experimental side. The witty instrumental »Hand In Hand« features numerous ethnic influences thanks to its rich percussion section, which Collins clearly ‘caught’ from his former Genesis buddy Gabriel. A childlike choir melody that sounds like a UNICEF commercial gets built up over time with a lively horn section and Phil’s mighty drum fills.
The big American hit »I Missed Again«, with its nonchalant, mischievous chorus and witty horn arrangement, pretty much set the standards for all of Collins’ future r’n’b and pop rock exploits of the same kind. The melancholic ballad »You Know What I Mean« is quite reminiscent of some of the ballads on »Duke«, such as »Alone Again Tonight«, which is no surprise, as it was written in the same period. The spirited r’n’b party-starter »Thunder And Lightning«, with its ‘ingratiating’ chorus, handclaps and dance rhythm, is aimed first and foremost at easygoing fun for the proverbially undemanding American audience. »I’m Not Moving« is a pretty fun experiment, since besides pronounced funk tendencies amid orchestrally spiced arrangements, it also has a bit of ‘good old’ English eccentricity. With its playful pulse and cheeky rhythm, it’s slightly reminiscent of »Pigeons«, a forgotten Genesis standard from 1977.
The easygoing, jazz-leaning ballad »If Leaving Me Is Easy«, the third big hit off »Face Value«, broke through mainly on European soil, while America ‘discovered’ it a bit later. Here Collins once again proves himself a superb singer of piercing (unhappy) love ballads, for which his voice was simply made. The album closes with one of the best, or at least most interesting, covers of any The Beatles classic. Collins’ take on the psychedelic »Revolver« classic »Tomorrow Never Knows« turns out wonderfully inventive, which means he managed to pay fitting tribute to John Lennon, who had been murdered only recently when this album was recorded. Phil kept the original’s thoroughly experimental, psychedelic ambience, and with his distinctive voice brought just the right dose of discipline and order into the chaos, so that the whole thing ends up perfectly balanced.
It’s not often that the transformation from prog rock champion to pop rock icon goes as smoothly and successfully as it did for Mr. Collins with »Face Value«. Most music lovers still agree today that it’s his best solo work, even though he boosted his pop rock reputation further with his subsequent studio releases. None of those matched the atmospheric and emotional depth of »Face Value«, because his new status as a big singing star, as tends to happen all too easily in similar corporate processes, made it impossible to pour the sincere essence of ‘himself’ into individual creations the way he pulled off so well on the debut. The best proof that Collins’ ego had grown to unforeseen proportions at the time is the blatantly ego-trip cover, with which he even overshadowed Jim Morrison himself, and which set the standard for all his later solo releases, where this indestructible charmer of women’s hearts does his sucking up.
Lineup
Phil Collins – vocals, drums, percussion, vocoder piano, Roland CR-78 drum machine, Prophet-5 synthesizer on tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12; Fender Rhodes, handclaps
John Giblin – bass guitar on 1, 9, 10, 12
Daryl Stuermer – guitar, banjo on 4
L. Shankar – violin on 1, 5, 6; tambura on 5, “vocal drums” on 5
Alphonso Johnson – bass guitar on 2, 3, 6, 7, 11
J. Peter Robinson – Prophet synthesizer on 3
Joe Partridge – slide guitar on 4
Stephen Bishop – backing vocals on 2
Eric Clapton – guitar on tracks 4 & 11
Arif Mardin – orchestral arrangements on tracks 8 and 11
Don Myrick – alto and tenor saxophone, alto saxophone solo on 11
Louis Satterfield – trombone
Rahmlee Michael Davis and Michael Harris – trumpet, horn on 11
Ronnie Scott – tenor saxophone solo on 7
Children’s choir from Los Angeles – backing vocals on 6
Production
Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham
Tracklist
1. In The Air Tonight
2. This Must Be Love
3. Behind the Lines
4. The Roof Is Leaking
5. Droned
6. Hand in Hand
7. I Missed Again
8. You Know What I Mean
9. Thunder and Lightning
10. I’m No Moving
11. If Leving Me Is Easy
12. Tomorrow Never Knows
