Record of the Day: Phil Collins, “Face Value”

Phil Collins
“Face Value” (Cd Atlantic 299143)

Anyone who owns a radio anywhere in the world has heard “In the Air Tonight” at some point. The single from this first solo album by the Genesis drummer, released in 1981, was a worldwide hit that sent the album to the top of the charts for months, selling millions of copies, and completely transforming the life and career of the English drummer.

Sure, Genesis were already rock stars, but “Face Value” reached an incredibly larger audience, turning Collins into a chart-topping pop icon for a decade; and yet Phil had put this album together mostly for himself, almost as a hobby, recording songs in his living room and calling on a small group of friends (including Eric Clapton, Alphonso Johnson, Stephen Bishop, Daryl Stuermer and Shankar) to lend him a hand.

The lyrics and songs, almost all strongly autobiographical, were a real self-therapy for the recent and painful divorce experienced by Collins, and the music also reflected the musician’s most intimate musical loves, in particular soul and funk music (which had instead been excluded from Genesis’ musical path up until that point).
In this sense, the funky re-release of “Behind the Lines” (which had appeared in a progressive rock version the year before on Genesis’ album “Duke”) shows the stylistic crossroads at which Collins found himself in these years, torn between loyalty to his lifelong friends and intolerance for a genre that was starting to feel increasingly restrictive for him (it is no coincidence that in these years his collaboration with the jazz-rock group Brand X intensified).

The songs on “Face Value” are the best of his entire career, and the many albums released since have been nothing more than attempts to repeat their success. Collins’ show-business side has become increasingly irritating over the years, but his qualities as an instrumentalist and singer are indisputable and shine brightly on this album. Both the instrumentals like “Droned” and “Hand in Hand” and the more pop songs like “I Missed Again” and “This Must Be Love” are infallible, and the choice to interpret one of the Beatles’ most beautiful and little-known songs, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, turns out to be very intelligent.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.