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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No, the Five Star Rating is not a Typo, October 17, 2001
Some of the people below can complain all they want and slag the band for carrying on without Keith. They can also tell you how dreadful they think this album is because everyone has an opinion, but the truth is they are wrong. If Face Dances doesn't agree with your musical taste, then fine, but the problem doesn't lie in the quality of the songs or musicianship. As along time Who fan, I'm not going to try and convince anyone that this album is as good or better than Tommy or Who's Next,but it is as good or better than some of their work. Despite what other's may say, all the songs here, both Pete and John's, are great songs. You Better You Bet, Cache Cache, Don't Let Go The Coat, and Another Tricky Day are as catchey and well contructed as anything Pete has done and the Quiet One and You are definitely two of the best songs Entwistle has ever written. The Quiet One and You are also as abrasive and raw as any studio tracks the Who ever did. Those songs come as close to the claasic Who live sound as anything.
I would also like to say that I was as sad as any other true fan when Keith Moon died,but I don't feel the rest of the band betrayed his memmory by carrying on. I also think that trashing Kenny Jones is pretty childish as well. I don't know if any of the other critics below are musicians or not, but I am and I thought Kenny's playing on both Face Dances and It's Hard was very impressive. He may not have had the frenzied , almost out of control style that made Keith so great, but his inventive use of varied rhythms and beats had alot of impact on the songs here. The bottom line here is, Face Dances may not be the best Who album, but it is a very good one.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Has to be appreciated in context, August 25, 2004
Honestly speaking, this is the band's weakest album along with being their most-hated. A number of factors make people hate it so strongly, such as Kenney Jones's drumming not matching the kind of drumming Keith Moon did, the songs being too poppy and not rocking enough, lame lyrics, and it just being a bad period for the band in general. Still, taken in context of everything that was going on for them during this period, it's remarkably good, esp. considering it could have been a whole lot worse. And many people feel that if Pete had done these songs on a solo album and saved EG for the band, these songs would have been received with a whole lot more critical acclaim because of how personal and un-Wholike they are (though then they might very well have hated EG instead, which is really hypocritical). It was my ninth Who album, and I'll admit I was really disappointed to see it in the store instead of WBN or WAY, which I'd been hoping might finally be stocked there by then. However, I was well-grounded enough in my fandom to take a chance and buy this album I'd heard such awful things about from almost everyone, and having already been led to believe it was a piece of garbage, I was rather pleasantly surprised on my first listening. It will never be one of my fave Who albums, but I rather like most of the songs. Having already heard the worst, I was prepared for anything and didn't have any great expectations to be smashed, which is why I believe my reaction to it was not at all negative or disgusted. Most of the songs do have mediocre, lame, or embarrassing lyrics, but taken in context they're not bad and are even enjoyable (or, perhaps, as a younger fan, only a bit over a year old when the album was first released, I didn't come to it with all of the baggage that made so many older fans hate it so much).
My faves on this album are "YBYB" (which apparently more female than male fans like; most male fans seem to hate this song), "The Quiet One," "Don't Let Go the Coat" (which I took ages to appreciate; I hated it for the longest time, until the demo version on 'Another Scoop' grew on me), "Daily Records," and the original closer "Another Tricky Day," which is a classic early Eighties anthem. "Did You Steal My Money?" and "How Can You Do It Alone?" routinely top most peoples' lists of their most-hated Who songs, but I rather like them; the former is kinda cute, and the middle-eight is so poignant, and the latter song (which is like a grown-up version of "Pictures of Lily") I like because of the bagpipes.
The Who's later albums, from WBN on, really didn't have as much thought and care put into their bonus tracks as the earlier ones did, but this one is the exception. I don't really care for "I Like Nightmares," but the other four are spectacular. "It's in You" is a great rocker, and the live versions of "The Quiet One" and "HCYDIA?" also really cook. It's interesting to note the differences between the original live genesis of "HCYDIA?" and the blander and less directly dirty version that eventually made its way onto this album; the live genesis is not only harder and more rocking but also has raunchier lyrics. The inclusion of the group's version of Pete's solo song "Somebody Saved Me" is also a great bonus track. You can also spot the differences between this song and the later album version; on here it's very slow and soft, whereas on 'Chinese Eyes' it's faster and a bit harder. Overall a great remastering job on an album that most people don't think that highly of to begin with.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unfairly Maligned, July 1, 2008
I love this album. That may have something to do with the fact that it was the first Who album I ever bought (I was 14). But I also think the songs are great. They remind me a bit of the mid-sixties "Pop Who" as they bounce, snip and snipe. Kenney Jones does a fine job, and it's unfortunate that he's gotten so much flack for accepting the bands offer to join. Of course he's not Keith Moon! No one is.
The only issue I have with this album is in the production. If they'd taken off even just a bit of the gloss it would have made a vast improvement I think. There's something a bit flat about the production. Though Bill Symczek (or however you spell his name) shouldn't necessarily take the blame either. The Who must have been familiar with his work - and for California rock such as The Eagles his production worked - but for The Who not so much. The band chose him though, so it's on their shoulders. Still though, I consider this a very underrated album. Songs like Don't Let Go The Coat, Another Tricky Day, You Better You Bet, and Entwistle's The Quiet One. There's a lot of humor to much of the material as well. It's the Who getting back to the more Pop approach they'd had early in their career. If the production hadn't taken the balls away from the sound then I think fans would have been more forgiving. Anyway, great album cover too! Enjoy!
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