| Face Value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Phil Collins | ||||
| Released | 9 February 1981 | |||
| Recorded | Late Winter 1979–1980 – January 1981 | |||
| Genre | Rock, pop | |||
| Length | 47:49 | |||
| Label | Virgin (UK and Ireland) Atlantic (rest of the world) |
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| Producer | Phil Collins, Hugh Padgham | |||
| Phil Collins chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Face Value | ||||
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Face Value is the debut solo album by Genesis front man Phil Collins, released in February 1981 on the Virgin label internationally and Atlantic Records in North America. The album includes the hit single, "In the Air Tonight", whose dark mood was inspired by the fallout of Collins' first marriage.
Contents |
By 1978, Phil Collins had been part of Genesis for eight years. After spending the first five of those years as a drummer, he was reluctantly given the role of front man of the group following original front man Peter Gabriel's departure shortly after the release of their conceptual progressive rock album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The first album where Collins took over was 1976's A Trick of the Tail, which while still featuring the same type of progressive rock that the group had been recording since its 1969 debut, also featured several ballads and softer rockers. Their 1978 album, ...And Then There Were Three..., featured their first crossover hit, "Follow You, Follow Me". The song and the subsequent album was the beginning of the group's breakaway from their progressive rock past into a more commercial, radio-friendly pop sound which alienated older fans but brought out newer ones. Collins' radio-friendly vocals helped to make their subsequent follow-up, Duke a big success. Following the recording and subsequent release of Duke, Collins took a leave of absence from the group to deal with his personal drama. Collins' first wife filed for divorce in 1979 and left Collins in the home they shared in England by himself. Collins reportedly stayed in his house for weeks working on songs that reflected his personal life. Initially, Collins did not want to record them for an album until Atlantic Records, Genesis' record label in America, and Virgin Records, his label overseas, offered him a solo contract. Collins would base the majority of Face Value on his impending divorce.
Sessions of what became Collins' first solo debut album, Face Value, took place in Los Angeles in 1980. In what was then considered a controversial move at the time, Collins, who grew up listening to American R&B as a child in Chiswick, decided to incorporate an R&B horn section, hiring the Phenix Horns, who played backup for Earth, Wind & Fire. Collins refused to listen to friends who had advised him not to use the horns and they would play a major role for most of his solo career.
Collins also used another then-controversial method in using drum programming rather than just live drum instrumentation despite his reputation as a drummer. Collins said he wanted to experiment with different sounds and was inspired by the works of his former band mate Peter Gabriel, who had used drum programming on his last album. Collins was often part of these sessions. Many of the songs' arrangements were done by Collins and session arranger Tom Tom 84. He also incorporated some classical instruments, such as violins. The last recording session for Face Value was in January 1981 prior to the release of the first single, "In the Air Tonight". Atlantic CEO Ahmet Ertegun advised Collins to perform drums during the verses and opening of the song, whereas the album version did not feature live drumming until the bridge. Several songs on the album featured an autobiographical view into Collins' life at the time, mainly to the anger he felt at his impending divorce. Rumors about "In the Air Tonight" being similarly autobiographical were widely circulated in America; in fact, the lyrics were ad-libbed and have no actual meaning. Other songs such as "You Know What I Mean" and "If Leaving Me Is Easy" were solemn ballads that talked of heartbreak. "I Missed Again" also had a solemn tone but was revised as a peppier song while still focusing its theme of heartbreak. The jazzy ballad "This Must Be Love" focused on Collins' then new romance at the time with Jill Tavelman, who would be his second wife.
The album uses several genres. While technically a rock and pop offering, the basis of many of the tracks were strongly R&B with lite funk influences especially in the song, "I'm Not Moving", for which Collins sung his backgrounds with the vocoder. The two instrumentals, "Droned" and "Hand in Hand", were progressive rock instrumentals with the first featuring an exotic African sound, while "Hand in Hand", featured jazz elements and a children's choir humming the music and improvisational instrumentation by Collins and the Phenix Horns. "The Roof is Leaking" had Delta blues and country elements. The album featured a cover of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows", which included instruments and vocals playing in reverse while Collins provided multi-layered background vocals and sparse drumming. After the song ends, Collins can be heard almost silently singing "Over the Rainbow", the songs are listed as hidden tracks on the album, and would be the only time Collins used hidden tracks on follow-up releases. Collins omitted several tracks off the album including "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" because he felt the album had "too many ballads".
Released on 9 February 1981, Face Value became an immediate success, reaching number-one in the UK, Canada, and other European countries, while peaking at the top ten in the United States. "In the Air Tonight" became the album's biggest success, reaching number-two in the UK, number-one in three other countries, and becoming a top twenty hit in the United States. Other songs such as "I Missed Again" found modest success reaching number-fourteen in the UK and number-nineteen in the US, while the third single, "If Leaving Me Is Easy", reached number-seventeen in the UK but was not released in America. Sales of the album reached five million alone in the United States and went five-times platinum in the United Kingdom and ten-times platinum in Canada. No solo tour was produced from this album and Collins would not perform live as a solo artist until 1982.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "In the Air Tonight" | Collins | 5:32 |
| 2. | "This Must Be Love" | Collins | 3:55 |
| 3. | "Behind the Lines" | Lyrics by Mike Rutherford, Music by Tony Banks, Collins, Rutherford | 3:53 |
| 4. | "The Roof is Leaking" | Collins | 3:16 |
| 5. | "Droned" | Collins | 2:55 |
| 6. | "Hand in Hand" | Collins | 5:12 |
| 7. | "I Missed Again" | Collins | 3:41 |
| 8. | "You Know What I Mean" | Collins | 2:33 |
| 9. | "Thunder and Lightning" | Collins | 4:12 |
| 10. | "I'm Not Moving" | Collins | 2:33 |
| 11. | "If Leaving Me Is Easy" | Collins | 4:54 |
| 12. | "Tomorrow Never Knows" | John Lennon, Paul McCartney | 4:46 |
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Total length:
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47:49 | ||
| Year | Charts | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [1] |
US [2] |
CAN [3][2] |
AUS [4][5] |
NZ [6] |
GER [7] |
AUT [8] |
NOR [9] |
SWE [10] |
SWI [11] |
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| 1981 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | ||||||||||||||||
| Year | Title | Charts | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [1] |
US [12] |
US Rock [12] |
CAN [2][3] |
AUS [4][5] |
NZ [6] |
GER [13] |
NL Top 100 [14] |
NL Top 40 [15] |
AUT [8] |
FRA [16] |
IRE [17] |
NOR [9] |
SWE [10] |
SWI [11] |
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| 1981 | "In the Air Tonight" | 2 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |
| "I Missed Again" | 14 | 19 | 8 | 6 | 88 | 35 | 23 | 28 | — | — | — | 12 | — | — | — | ||
| "If Leaving Me Is Easy" | 17 | — | — | — | — | — | 61 | — | — | — | — | 25 | — | — | — | ||
| "Behind the Lines" | — | — | 58 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Thunder and Lightning" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1988/1989 | "In the Air Tonight ('88 Remix)" | 4 | — | — | — | 47 | — | 3 | 17 | 23 | 4 | 20 | 6 | — | — | 2 | |
| 2007/2008 | "In the Air Tonight" (Re-release) | 14 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | 32 | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | |||||||||||||||||
| Country | Sales | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1,750,000+ | 7x Gold[18] |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [19] |
| Rolling Stone | [20] |
Allmusic's William Ruhlmann rated Face Value four-and-a-half out of five stars. He stated: "Collins proves himself a passionate singer (and distinctive drummer) with a gift for both deeply felt ballads and snarling rockers."[19] Steve Pond of Rolling Stone rated it three out of five stars. He explained that "[Collins] keeps the fluid vocal tone he's lately developed in Genesis, yet ignores the group's high-blown conceits in favor of some basic pop and R&B lessons". He also called the album "pop music about personal turmoil". However, he stated that "the singer's broken heart is too clearly on his sleeve, and musical missteps abound".[20]
List of best-selling albums in Germany
| Preceded by Double Fantasy by John Lennon & Yoko Ono |
UK Albums Chart number one album 21 February 1981 – 13 March 1981 |
Succeeded by Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants |
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