Phil Collins - Face Value

Few solo debuts carry a moment as famous as the drum break in "In The Air Tonight", and Phil Collins's Face Value is set to return on 180-gram vinyl.

Released in 1981, while Collins was still drumming and singing for Genesis, the album grew out of the collapse of his first marriage. He demoed much of it at home, then produced it with Hugh Padgham, and the heartbreak sits right on the surface rather than being polished away.

That cavernous, gated drum sound on "In The Air Tonight" helped define the decade, but the record roams widely. "I Missed Again" punches along on bright brass from the Phenix Horns, Earth, Wind & Fire's horn section, while "If Leaving Me Is Easy" is a hushed, aching ballad. A playful, psychedelic cover of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" brings the curtain down.

There is even a funked-up reworking of a Genesis song. Between the soul-inflected pop and the art-rock experiments, you can hear the template for much of what Collins would do over the following years, along with his knack for making private pain sound universal.

Pressed on heavyweight vinyl, it remains the sound of a drummer stepping out from his band and finding an audience all his own.