The Waiting Room Online

“Taken At Face Value” – The newly remastered edition examined by Alan Hewitt.

I will preface the review with a few words about the recent playback event which was organised to promote it in London and which TWR was fortunate enough to be invited to attend.

The last time we saw Phil up close and personal was when we spoke to him back in 2016. Since then he has gone through several health issues including surgeries and it was a delight to see him looking so well and happy. The playback was prefaced by a very interesting and informative chat with the man responsible for the new edition of this iconic album: Steven Wilson. The pair chatted animatedly about the album and the circumstances around its creation and there was certainly nothing wrong with Phil's memory as he came up with several interesting and amusing anecdotes surrounding the album and its creation.

Incidentally, YouTube has an official broadcast of this interview on the Phil Collins channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXa2vuuMLvg

Then came the playback of the album... Now as someone who is never likely to have a full Atmos set up in my living room, this was probably going to be my only chance to hear this version of it. As someone who has quite literally grown up with this album – I was nineteen when it was released in the spring of 1981 – it is safe to say that I am very familiar with it and so I was really curious as to what details might be brought out to surprise (or maybe even shock) me...

Suffice to say there plenty of surprises – and no shocks! The first thing that immediately grabbed me was just how fresh and clean the album sounded. And by “clean” I don’t mean sanitised, it was just that here was the album as it was originally heard by Phil and the musicians who created it back in 1980. For an album which used Phil's demos as its heart, the results are never less than astonishing. Even In The Air Tonight had new depth and breadth to it.

The instrumentals were a joy, fresh, vibrant and with much additional detail to hear and it is astonishing just how inventive Phil was here, there is much to admire and enjoy. For me however, the highlight was the criminally underrated The Roof Is Leaking. Not the most impressive of numbers on the album originally, if you were, like me, lucky enough to see Phil perform it live however you will realise just how effective a number it was. Well, here we finally have it almost scaling those live heights in studio form. Some remarkable performances not least from Daryl whose banjo picking is superb.

The over all effect is, for me at least almost as good as hearing the album for the first time all those years ago it really is that good!

Sadly, I can't comment on the multitude of extras which the vinyl edition of this package comes equipped with as I gave up on vinyl a looonnngg time ago. So that would be my only criticism of this entire package - these recordings (some of which were available on the Take A Look At Me Now reissue) should have been on the Blu-Ray or a CD edition which is conspicuous by its absence, but it is the album that is the star and on this reissue it most definitely shines brighter than ever!