Phil Collins, "Face Value"
Mitch drowns in his love of Genesis
Mitch’s Pitch:
I knew that I was in for a world of hurt with Phil Collins’ solo debut Face Value.
My third pitch at EONS was for Genesis’ Duke. It was thoroughly and roundly eviscerated. My so-called friends, blinded by their hatred of synthesizers and prog rock, discounted the hits, ignored the exceptional playing, and blithely sent a musical masterpiece to the cut out bin.
Wounded, reeling, I licked my wounds and plotted my revenge. Not only would I pitch another Genesis-related album, but I would pitch an album from the same era, that even shared a song (“Behind the Lines”) with Duke. I would pitch Phil Collins’ debut solo album, Face Value, and I’d put this whole damn hall of fame on trial.
EONS was predicated on the notion of album appreciation. The intention was to set aside personal tastes and genre biases and consider the merits of individual albums. Are we really going to have a hall of fame that excludes one of the biggest and most important musical artists of the 1980s while making space for hot garbage like The Scorpions and Bon Jovi?
As the great Seymour Skinner once said:
“Am I so out of touch? No, it’s the children that are wrong.”
It’s time to right that wrong.
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I knew that I was in for a world of hurt with Phil Collins’ solo debut Face Value.
Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks has always been considered the proto-typical “divorce” album, with Dylan taking off his mask and finally exposing some real human emotion, removing the distance created by his rock-star persona. An all-time classic album, Blood on the Tracks largely plays in anger - it’s Dylan’s tears of rage at the dissolution of his relationship and family.
Face Value plays in similar thematic territory, but where Dylan is seething with anger, Phil Collins is wallowing in despair. Face Value is an album about loss, and about the existential pain that accompanies loss.
And it’s Phil's lyrics - the naked emotion displayed throughout - that makes this album so compelling, but also a little emotionally challenging. We just aren’t used to rock stars - especially stiff-upper lip Brits in the ‘80s - being as vulnerable as Phil is when facing rejection in the sax-soaked ballad “If Leaving Me is Easy”, being as broken as he is in the gorgeous piano-ballad, “You Know What I Mean”, or willing to risk the pain of love again as he is in the drum-machine driven “This Must Be Love”.
Face Value’s reputation as a sad-bastard divorce album is built upon that trifecta of ballads, but Phil smartly breaks up the emotional heaviness by injecting an invigorating dose of his beloved R&B, and he makes sure that all of the R&B songs slap by including a murder’s row of guests, including the horn section from Earth, Wind & Fire and Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report) on bass.
The funky, sped-up version of Genesis’ “Behind the Lines” is completely unexpected, and works much better than expected. "I Missed Again” is probably the best ever Phil with horns song (and there are a lot of Phil with horns songs!) and I never get tired of hearing it. "Thunder and Lightning” is a delightful burst of bass-heavy sunshine, regardless of what the chorus says.
An album full of beautiful ballads and bouncing blues would have been enough, but Face Value’s most lasting contribution to music is obviously the mega-hit single, “In The Air Tonight”, a monumental achievement that inspired the entire ‘80s drum sound and the greatest Cadbury’s advert ever. Phil, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno pioneered the “gated drum” sound on Gabriel’s third solo album, but “In The Air Tonight” popularized the sound that became the sound of music. As a single it’s as important a sonic innovation as Marky Mark’s The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and it’s a fantastic song as well, its power undimmed by the passage of time.
And while there are no long prog-workouts on Face Value we do get the excellent experimental suite of “The Roof is Leaking” (a drumless banjo song), “Droned” (an Eno-esque soundscape), and “Hand in Hand” (a transitory electronica to funk jam), to remind us that Phil just likes to jam and experiment.
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I know you guys don’t like Genesis, and you don’t like Phil Collins, and you don’t like prog rock, and you probably don’t even like me. That’s fine. But I’m asking you to put aside your personal prejudices and recognize that Phil Collins is one of the most innovative, influential and important artists in the history of music and that Face Value is among his greatest achievements. An EONS without Phil Collins? There must be some misunderstanding.
Ken’s Response:
“In the Air Tonight” was one of the best and most popular songs of the decade. VH1’s list of best songs of the 1980’s has it at #35, behind so many iconic songs and ahead of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”, Springsteen’s “Born In The USA” and Mellencamp’s generation-defining “Jack and Diane”. Phil Collins owned the early and mid ‘80’s.
In addition to “In the Air Tonight”, Collins had huge hits with (Supremes’ cover) “You Can’t Hurry Love”, “Sussudio”, “Against All Odds”, and “One More Night”, and that was all before we even rung in the New Year for 1986. There’s a reason for this, and it’s Phil’s unquestionable honesty.
If I’m being honest with myself, I like some of Phil’s stuff, but the majority of it isn’t my bag. Maybe it’s the mix of experimental sounds he engineers into a lot of his ‘80’s albums, or maybe it’s my predisposition toward disliking anything related to Genesis. But I’m caught between a rock star and a hard place because Face Value is an incredible album, and I say this out of one side of my face, while the other side says I’ll most likely never listen to this album voluntarily again.
While it’s not my personal taste, I simply can’t overlook the passionate vulnerability in his lyrics and the emotion in his vocals. “The Roof Is Leaking” and “If Leaving Me Is Easy” are incredibly poignant and heart-wrenching. “Droned” sounds like George Winston and Enya gave birth to a Phil Collins song but it’s exceptional musically. The only song on here that’s absolutely brutal and should be shot off into a black hole millions of light years away is the cover of “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
Between absolutely owning the soft rock community in the early ‘80’s, the crazy new drum sound he pioneered, and some insane time signatures that make my head spin, Face Value is an album that may not be my personal taste, but its quality and historical importance are too much to keep from the Newbury St. Collection.
Pitch successful (against all odds, Phil made it)
CJ’s Response:
I don’t mind doing the dishes. Some people look at a pile of dirty pots and pans in the sink and become overwhelmed with despair. But, to me, there’s something very satisfying about working my way through that stack until everything, including the sink, sparkles. It’s like a total reset before the next meal. Nah, doing the dishes isn’t a chore.
Listening to Phil Collins is a chore.
Despite my well-documented disdain for Genesis and all Genesis-related products, I am willing to stipulate right here and now that the prog trio and my beloved Rush keep a lot closer company than I was previously willing to admit. And I will further concede the point that Phil and his drumming had a profound impact on my favorite stick man, Neil Peart. But, please, no more Genesis derivatives. Because if the next thing you pitch is a Mike and the Mechanics record, so help me I’m coming over the boards.
To paraphrase your friend Steve, when are ya gonna stop squeezing that puppy, Mitchy?
My biggest issue with Phil Collins is a charge that Mitch once erroneously leveled at Tom Petty. It’s that Collins is essentially a singles artist. That is, he writes a couple of (really) good singles and then builds an album of indulgences and head-scratchers around them. Case in point, Face Value.
“In The Air Tonight” is a straight up killer. Moody, iconic, tone-setting—all the things that made it so ideal for pivotal scenes in TV shows and movies. “I Missed Again” is a groovy swing track with a great hook and a sing-a-long chorus. Score two for the human incarnation of Charlie Brown.
And then?
And then it’s basically a lot of moping and atmospherics. “Hand in Hand”, with its children’s choir, reminds me of that problematic Stevie Wonder song minus the latent anti-Semitism. “The Roof is Leaking” is a different kind of water torture. And “Thunder and Lightning” delivers neither.
Seriously, what activity are you engaged in when you think to yourself “You know, this would be the perfect time to listen to an entire Phil Collin album.”?
Powerwalking?
Preparing a Powerpoint presentation?
Power washing the patio?
If there’s a Phil Collins “mood”, I have yet to experience it in my time on this earth.
So, if you’re asking me to take Face Value at face value, the answer has to be no.
By the way, you also killed our run of amazing album covers with this one.
Pitch Failed (Missed again, indeed.)
Mitch’s pitch was unsuccessful and Phil Collins’ Face Value will not sniff the vaunted air of Newbury St. tonight.
You can’t hurry love, but you can take me home to the comments section and let us know if listening to Phil Collin’s Face Value is another day in paradise or if you wish it would rain down on me. I don’t care anymore. Sussudio!
Please join us next week as Ken makes a reservation with Don, Glenn and the rest of the guys in the Eagles at a little place known only as Hotel California.
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There's a story that Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun used to play a demo of In the Air Tonight to people bringing him songs. He would tell them that's what a hit song sounds like.
I feel the same way about Face Value. If you ask me, that's what a good pop/rock album sounds like. I would leave out Tomorrow Never Knows. The rest of the album plays out really well for me. Genesis never had an album this good, but Phil came close a couple more times.
I have never seen, read, or heard of this newsletter, but my first impression is that Mitch has sublime taste in music and that CJ has literally never been depressed before.