Phil Collins – Face Value – 45RPM Vinyl Review
Vinyl surface noise: 5-
Dynamic Range: 5
Stereo Imaging: 5-
Image depth/perspective: 4
Overall frequency response: 5-
Please see here for my comments on reviewing albums.
Track List:
- Side A:
- In The Air Tonight
- This Must Be Love
- Behind The Lines
- Side B:
- The Roof Is Leaking
- Droned
- Hand In Hand
- Side C:
- I Missed Again
- You Know What I Mean
- Thunder And Lightning
- Side D:
- I’m Not Moving
- If Leaving Me Is Easy
- Tomorrow Never Knows
Phil Collins is an English singer, drummer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis and had a successful solo career, achieving three UK number one singles and seven US number one singles as a solo artist. In total, his work with Genesis, other artists, and solo resulted in more US top-40 singles than any other artist throughout the 1980’s.
Face Value is the debut solo studio album of Phil Collins, it spawned four singles including the smash hit “In The Air Tonight”. It was recorded between August-December 1980 at; The Town House, Old Croft and The Village Recorder studios, being released in February 1981 by Virgin Records (UK) and Atlantic Records (US), going 5xPlatinum in both countries. This latest release was mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and cut to lacquer from a 1/4″ EQ’d Dolby tape copy of the original master tape and pressed at Quality Record Pressings.
This 2 disc, 180gram, 45RPM, Edition (AAPA 003-45) was released by Analogue Productions (Atlantic Series 75) in October 2023 and arrives in a Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jacket with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.
Not numbered.
Reviewed using a Hana SL, MC cartridge, Entre Lentek head amp and MX-VYNL pre-amp.
See here for my vinyl review playback hardware.
This is an outstanding pressing with low surface noise. The discs are ruler flat, perfectly concentric and looked to be a pristine pressing, all shine. In my eagerness to hear this album I forwent cleaning it with my Nitty Gritty prior to its first play. As soon as the stylus hit the vinyl I just new this was going to be a memorable experience. The vinyl was very silent on all sides and there weren’t ANY pops or clicks on to be heard.
OK, yes, I am a bit of a Phil Collins fan boy, but it’s not because we are the same age. Genesis and in particular Phil Collins, are excellent musicians and together with their engineers, producers and mastering houses produced some terrific albums. This is a testament to one of his.
Now remember, this album was never produced to be an audiophile recording and was created from a 1/4″ tape copy at 15 ips with Dolby A noise reduction. So do not hold your aural expectations too high. In my opinion, several sources seem to have been rather generous when describing the albums audiophile qualities. My comments are based upon having worked in professional music recording studios and relative to other audiophile albums on my system.
The disc is well mastered and with only three tracks per side the cutting head seemed to extract what dynamic range was available from the master tape, sounding excellent on many tracks and having solid dynamics.
All tracks are a real pleasure to listen to and make for easy listening, providing well detailed and balanced sonics with tight bass, punchy mids and clear highs, all with either light reverb or short studio decay. So lets get the “elephant in the room” out of the way first, Phil’s drum kit and drumming. In a word, outstanding, with the centrally placed kick drum that often dug quite deep, having a solid punch and slam with occasional beater sound. Then there’s his snare, just right of center, that is tight and clean, supporting a tremendous dynamic range, add to that the gated reverb on Side A T1, what impact. Toms are evenly spread across the entire image, providing distinct tones with a tight short ring and plenty of impact. Top end detail is extended but not over bright or harsh, with hi-hat placed just right of center and cymbals nicely spread across the image, all creating good imaging but short on depth.
Phil’s lead vocals provide good presence with a strong central image that often appears set slightly back, occasionally coming across as a little “strident”. There are no hard edges to any instruments, with strings beings smooth and silky with trumpets and sax clean and bright. The sax having a strong reverb tail and being set back a little to the left of center. The overall sound is quite warm and open with good separation and detail, providing moderately good imaging but with a limited depth perspective, even for the orchestral and backing parts. Clearly as a modern studio multi-track recording only a few instruments like sax, a tom provide significant depth with electronic reverb being added to provide some overall depth perspective, being abundant on various vocals and Phil’s kit.
Orchestral parts and instruments providing a broad image with moderate depth. Guitars, strings, piano, keyboards, trumpets, sax and other instruments providing natural and well defined accompaniments on all tracks.
Clearly, significant care and attention was given to the mastering, cutting and pressing processes. The final result being an excellent rendition of the original master tape, providing solid dynamics and a respectable frequency response. All rounded off by some great musicianship and tracks.
There are several notable and famous hit tracks to include; the major hit; In The Air Tonight SAT1, I missed Again SCT1, If Leaving Me Is Easy SDT2 and Thunder And Lightning SCT3. Having an excellent mix of music and high standard of mastering and pressing this latest release makes it to the audiophile level of a reference/demo album. I just wish that Phil’s vocals were a little less strident.
With that said, this album is probably almost as good as it will ever sound and without doubt a rock/pop classic and outstanding pressing. If this is your style of music then you should own it.
See my other vinyl reviews here.
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