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Review of Phil Collins "Face Value"
With
the notable exception of the three "Peter Gabriel"s,
every solo album from a Genesis member or ex-member
has proudly displayed the lessons learned in that
band - and been the worse for it. But Phil Collins'
debut album is neither art-rock nor the fusion jazz
that Collins favored in Brand X. Instead, he 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 apparently
gleaned from Face Value's backup musicians, the
Earth Wind and Fire horn section and Stephen Bishop.
Like
"Misunderstanding," Face Value is pop
music about personal turmiol: in this case, the
dissolution of Collins' marriage. At times, the
singer's broken heart is too clearly on his sleeve,
and musical missteps abound: the annoying Munchkin-like
Vocorder effects in "I'm Not Moving,"
some rote horn charts, a batch of indistinguishable
ballads, and a flaccid cover version of the Beatles'
"Tomorrow Never Knows."
But
Collins hits more often than not, adeptly blending
moody keyboard trills and bone-cruching drumbeats
in "In the Air Tonight" and shifting with
surprising surre-footedness from the Eno-esque repetition
of "Droned" through the percussive horn
blasts of "Hand in Hand" to the persuasive
intimacy of "If Leaving Me is Easy." Face
Value is far less ambitious and important than Gabriel's
debut, yet it's also unmistakably the most wirthy
Genesis product since that record. Phil
Collins' Face Value Tracks:
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 & Lightning
10. I'm Not Moving
11. If Leaving Me Is Easy
12. Tomorrow Never Knows
