About ‘Face’: Phil Collins’ Debut Expanded on Vinyl, Remixed for Blu-ray for 45th Anniversary

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Did he miss again? Hardly. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of his debut album, Phil Collins will release a new deluxe vinyl version of 1981’s Face Value featuring all the material from the original 2016 deluxe edition and more – including some long unavailable and previously unreleased material.

Available September 18 and following the example of similar box sets for No Jacket Required (1985) and Both Sides (1993), Face Value (Full Value) offers a half-speed pressing of the original album’s 2015 remaster cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, plus three additional LPs including the 12 live tracks and demo recordings from the “Extra Values” live disc issued as part of a reissue campaign on CD a decade ago – plus another 13 cuts that weren’t on that deluxe set. Those baker’s dozen include additional demos, remixes, live cuts and even outtake versions of the album’s closing covers of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Over the Rainbow.” By our count, four of the tracks are being released for the first time anywhere, with several others – including a 1982 performance at the charity gig The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball and a pair of demos released digitally as part of Collins’ fan club – coming back into physical print for the first time in years. The LPs, packaged in their own individual sleeves inside a hard slipcover box featuring the original album art in a blue hue, will be further accompanied by a 20-page booklet featuring liner notes by Tom Doyle, who sat with Collins for a new interview featured in the package.

As with No Jacket, a new Blu-ray Audio disc will be released the same day, featuring the original album in its original stereo mix, alongside new stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos mixes prepared by acclaimed engineer Steven Wilson. If the release plan for Face Value is similar, the stereo mixes and material not previously included in the 2016 reissue will be available digitally over time. (As such, an unreleased 1982 live performance of album cut “You Know What I Mean” is now available to stream or download.)

When Face Value arrived in 1981, Collins was already a prolific figure in British music. A former child actor, he joined progressive rock group Genesis as its drummer in 1970 and, following the 1975 departure of original vocalist Peter Gabriel, made an unlikely transition to fronting the band as well as playing percussion; during this time, the group’s sound changed from full prog to elements of mainstream rock and pop. By 1980, Genesis scored their first chart-topping album in the U.K., Duke, which also peaked at No. 11 in America; Collins had also branched out into other studio work, drumming with fusion group Brand X as well as solo albums by John Martyn and former bandmate Gabriel.

But all was hardly well for the hardworking musician. In 1980, his five-year marriage to Andrea Bertorelli ended in divorce, a move which gutted him and influenced a batch of raw solo demos he’d assemble away from Genesis. Working with producer Hugh Padgham, who engineered Gabriel’s third solo album in 1980 and pioneered a new “gated reverb” drum sound for Collins, Face Value built on those solo demos with overdubs from the likes of guitarists Darryl Stuermer (who’d become Phil’s right hand on tour and a live member of Genesis after guitarist Steve Hackett departed) and Eric Clapton, violinist L. Shankar and – perhaps most notably – Earth, Wind & Fire’s Phenix Horns trio, a mainstay of Collins and Genesis’ sound in the ’80s.

Kicked off by the five-and-a-half-minute epic “In the Air Tonight” – a raw portrait of Collins’ post-divorce psyche that was misinterpreted to literally be about Phil exposing a man who didn’t stop another from drowning – Face Value established Phil Collins as a new star for a new decade. The album topped the U.K. charts and peaked in the Top 10 in America, with “In the Air Tonight” reaching U.K. No. 2 and “I Missed Again” hitting the Top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic. Collins would balance an increasingly mainstream solo presence and leadership of Genesis through the ’80s and early ’90s, becoming one of the most oddly ubiquitous pop stars on the planet by 1985. Largely removed from the hype, Face Value remains a powerful, emotional statement from a male singer with resonance for decades, from the iconic “In the Air” drum break to the album’s influence on fellow divorcee Anni-Frid Lyngstad of ABBA, who recruited Collins to produce her 1982 masterpiece Something’s Going On, issued under the name Frida.

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While Collins hasn’t issued any original solo material since 2003, nor solo records since a 2010 Motown covers project, he remains perhaps more respected now than he ever was in his heyday. He returned to Genesis for reunion tours in 2007 and 2021-2022, though the latter featured his son Nic on drums, as a lifetime of heavy-duty performance and nerve damage has rendered him with limited mobility. (Indeed, in a career-spanning BBC interview earlier this year, the 75-year-old Collins admitted he was receiving around-the-clock care for his health issues.) But that influence continues to loom: this fall, he’ll be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, having entered with Genesis in 2010.

Details for Face Value (Full Value) can be accessed below, along with pre-order links for both the box set and the Blu-ray. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Face Value (Full Value) (Atlantic/Rhino, 2026)

4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

LP 1: Original album (2015 remaster) (released as Virgin V2185 (U.K.)/Atlantic SD 16029 (U.S.), 1981)

Side A

  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

Side B

  1. I Missed Again
  2. You Know What I Mean
  3. Thunder and Lightning
  4. I’m Not Moving
  5. If Leaving Me is Easy
  6. Tomorrow Never Knows

LP 2 (live tracks previously released on Face Value (Deluxe Edition) – Atlantic/Warner Music PCCD 81 (U.K.)/R2 550171 (U.S.), 2016)

Side C

  1. Misunderstanding (Live @ Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA – 8/31/2004)
  2. If Leaving Me is Easy (Live @ Berkeley Community Theatre, San Francisco, CA – 12/16/1982)
  3. In the Air Tonight (Live @ Palais Omnisports de Bercy, Paris, France – 12/9/1997)
  4. Behind the Lines (Live @ Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX – 5/29/1985)

Side D

  1. Hand in Hand (Live @ Palais Omnisports de Bercy, Paris, France – 12/9/1997)
  2. I Missed Again (Live @ Palais Omnisports de Bercy, Paris, France – 6/15/2004)
  3. …And So to F… (Live @ Perkins Palace, Pasadena, CA – 12/19/1982)

LP 3

Side E

  1. In the Air Tonight (Live @ The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, England – 9/10-11/1981) (from The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (The Music) – Springtime HAHA 6004 (U.K.), 1982)
  2. The Roof is Leaking (Live @ The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, England – 9/10-11/1981) (from The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (The Music) – Springtime HAHA 6004 (U.K.), 1982)
  3. This Must Be Love (Live @ Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA – 6/2-3/1985) *
  4. You Know What I Mean (Live @ Perkins Palace, Pasadena, CA – 12/19/1982) *

Side F

  1. In the Air Tonight (Ben Liebrand Extended Version) (Virgin U.K. 12″ A-side VST 102, 1988)
  2. The Roof is Leaking (Nicka’s Stella Polaris Interpretation) (from Stella Polaris – The X, Stella Polaris Music STELLA 010CD (DK), 2014)
  3. Tomorrow Never Knows (Outtake) *
  4. Over the Rainbow (Full Version) *

LP 4

Side G (previously released on Face Value (Deluxe Edition) – Atlantic/Warner Music PCCD 81 (U.K.)/R2 550171 (U.S.), 2016)

  1. The Roof is Leaking
  2. This Must Be Love
  3. Please Don’t Ask
  4. Misunderstanding
  5. Against All Odds

Side H

  1. Please Don’t Break My Heart (released as Phil Collins fan club MP3 download, 2010/2011)
  2. If Leaving Me is Easy (B-side to “If Leaving Me is Easy” U.K. single – Virgin VS423, 1981)
  3. I Missed Again (B-side to “If Leaving Me is Easy” U.K. single – Virgin VS423, 1981)
  4. In the Air Tonight (B-side to “If Leaving Me is Easy” U.K. single – Virgin VS423, 1981)
  5. Hand in Hand (released as Phil Collins fan club MP3 download, 2010/2011)
Mike Duquette
Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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