Phil Collins – Take A Look At Me Now (Boxed Set)

Posted on by keepsmealive Posted in posts by aaronTagged

Y’all maybe don’t know this, as I haven’t written much about him yet, but I have been a huge Phil Collins fan for years. His music has been a soundtrack to many things, for me. He’s one of those artists. You know the kind.

Because of this, I own all but the new one from this set already. Moreover, this doesn’t have any info with it, and only the cover artwork is new. I didn’t notice any bonus tracks, at quick glance (I’ll investigate deeper). There are no extra discs with the albums. And generally, I don’t care about remastering jobs. Usually, unless it’s an old blues recording from the 30s or something, I don’t notice much difference anyway.

I did not need to buy this, really.

I bought it anyway.

***

No reviews on this one – this post is simply to share this find.

There are a couple of versions (I opted for CD):

One is in a boxed set with gatefold digipak CD cases (for about $40-$50 CAD), and this one that I got, which is all the same albums in slim cardboard wallet sleeves in a clamshell case ($20-$25 CAD). With that price difference between the two, let’s be honest, who cares about digipaks? Some people probably would. I didn’t!

What you get is the first (main) discs of the 2017 remastered editions of these huge albums:

Face Value
Hello I Must Be Going
No Jacket Required
…But Seriously
Both Sides
Dance Into The Light
Testify
PLUS: Going Back – The Essential

Probably I ought to have bought the individual RM sets, for the extra stuff. I likely still will. But I am very happy with this set, nonetheless. It gives me an excuse to go play all these records again. As if I wouldn’t play my old copies anyway. But shhh. I don’t tell myself these things…

***

Here’s another cool treat:

A lot of these albums had close-ups of Phil’s face as cover art. For the remasters, Phil re-did them with his current face. I love that he did this. Of them all, the only one that isn’t all that interesting is Dance Into The Light (as you’ll see, below), but the rest are cool.

I’ve put them all side by side for you. Check it out (original on the left, remaster on the right):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the last record, of course, doesn’t have an old version, per se, but it has two covers. The one in this set is on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

23 thoughts on “Phil Collins – Take A Look At Me Now (Boxed Set)”

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      I know I watched and commented on the first video so clearly I’d forgotten that bit. Blame my distracted brain. But good on ya for picking that one up – it’s chock full of Phil goodness!

      Like

  2. Reply
    stephen1001 says:

    I remember being impressed when a friend once told me the weather forecast with help from Phil Collins – what’s it going to be like tomorrow? No jacket required!
    And I’d agree with your math on the digipak cost/benefit analysis, I can’t justify an extra $20 for them either

    Like

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      Did your friend use that joke about the weather, pause for effect, then say “… But Seriously, since when can weathermen predict the weather?” If not, that was a missed opportunity that should have been taken at Face Value! It is, after all, always good to tell Both Sides of the story…

      The digipaks are nice, but all I do is store the CDs from cardboard sleeves like my set here in slim CD cases anyway. If you want a cheap and easy way to grab up a good chunk of Phil’s solo output, you can’t go wrong with this set, Geoff!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      keepsmealive says:

      Pretty easy to grab the whole box set hog here, HMO. Your Amazons have the set of 8 albums in the clamshell case that I got for a mere £10.99. If you want the digipaks, it’s £18.94.

      All apologies to Sarca is she already posted about this. I’ve been TERRIBLE at Reading anyone else’s work for so long, I dunno if I’ll ever catch up. I keep intending to try, but life is just too damn busy!

      Like

      1. Reply
        mikeladano says:

        Which for me, might be the best way to go. I think he probably has deluxes of all of these. But sometimes that is a hindrance, it’s a lot of music to absorb at once when you don’t own Phil.

        Like

        1. Reply
          keepsmealive says:

          Since I owned all the CDs (and a few on LP too) this set was kinda superfluous for me, but I thought $20 for 8 albums was an alright deal!

          There are indeed deluxes, I’ve had a look at the 2cd sets and the second discs are mostly live stuff and demos. Very few bonus studio tracks from the eras, so it depends on what interests you.

          You don’t own Phil? Like, none of his solo stuff? Not even NJR or But Seriously?

          Liked by 1 person

              1. Reply
                mikeladano says:

                Oh! One more thing in my own defense lol. I voted for “Easy Lover” with Phillip Bailey for SFest 2019. I think it will make it, Meat voted for it too.

                Like

            1. Reply
              keepsmealive says:

              Whew! Heard them is a good start! This set would be perfect for you, then, as a beginners course. It’s cheap and remastered and if you wanted to dig deeper into the deluxe editions later you could. I mean, for $20, this is a friggin’ goldmine!

              Liked by 1 person

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