Phil Collins - Face Value [Blu-Ray Audio]

In 1981 Phil Collins was known as the drummer who had taken over the microphone in Genesis. Then came Face Value, written in the wreckage of his first marriage and recorded largely on his own terms, and it went to number one in the UK for three weeks while selling more than five million copies in America. Rather than reach for pop escapism, Collins leaned into raw vulnerability and built a record out of it.

The album is most famous for its production. Working with Hugh Padgham, Collins turned the gated reverb drum sound into the defining sonic signature of the decade, and nowhere more so than on "In the Air Tonight," whose drum fill remains the most celebrated in rock history. Around that centerpiece he showed remarkable range: the Phenix Horns of Earth, Wind & Fire bring a vibrant funk charge to "I Missed Again," Eric Clapton turns up on guitar, and the minimalist folk of "The Roof Is Leaking" sits a few tracks from an experimental reading of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." Soul, art pop, and R&B fold into one cohesive and deeply personal statement.

Forty five years on, Face Value stands as proof that a divorce record could be avant-garde and commercially massive at the same time, and as the moment a progressive rock drummer became a global solo artist.

This Blu-ray Audio edition is the definitive way to hear it. Steven Wilson has prepared a new stereo mix, a 5.1 surround mix, and a Dolby Atmos mix, all presented alongside the 2016 remaster of the original mix. High resolution, fully immersive, and revelatory on a record built around space and atmosphere.