Faces: An Unrecognized Masterpiece

It wasn't until the second time I bought this album, in Singapore, that I really fell in love with it. I listened to it on my Walkman on an SIA flight all the way back to London AND for hours after I'd arrived home, and never tired of it for a second. So why wasn't it the success it should have been?



I think it was because in many ways Faces was a departure from the format that stamped the band as a world class black phenomenon. Not worse-just different, and yet different in a way that might at first incline one to dismiss this album as something of an anticlimax after the mesmeric and meteoric brilliance of the two albums that preceded it. Though, let's "face" it, 'All 'n All' and 'I am' were indeed a hard act to follow.



One of its problems is that on an initial hearing it seems smoochy and limp-wristed. But it grows on you. And indeed, although Faces is also lacking overall in the raunchy funk-edge that tracks like Serpentive Fire, Jupiter and Magic Mind brought to "All 'n All", it more than makes up for this in offering a sound experience that while it's original in the way only EW&F can be, is also very cool and very sexy--even for EW&F--but equally, spiritually uplifting. I'm thinking here especially of 'Song in My Heart' and 'Take it to the Sky'.



With Faces, the band seemed to have finally reached an apotheosis in its drive to find the ideal "world music" blend and balance. It was neither cataclysmic yet dreamy like 'All n All', nor escapist in the way 'I am' was--it was anchored firmly on Planet Earth, and yet had foregone none of its ethereal, other-worldly, ambience that makes EW&F so unique for an African American band.



Ironically, Faces is EW&F at its best, only in a format that takes some adjusting to if you were expecting more of the same after its famous predecessors.

Faces, Races, Places oooweya hey yeaaaaa!

Man this album rocks. I love the ballads, You and You Went Away. I also really dig the intro of And Love Goes On. I recently discovered this album just a few years ago but I have never heard any song played from it on the radio. Such good songs and how sad the record company didn't step up to the promotions. EWF is one heck of a band..you don't see stuff like this today i tell ya.

DON'T LET THE NUMBERS FOOL YOU!

If you are thinking about buying this album, let me be the deciding vote in favor of it. In the history of EW&F, Faces represents the group's first real commercial failure since 1972's Last Days And Time. My immediate thought when I first played this album was "What was the world thinking?". You could probably blame a million things (An "everybody" group in the "Me" generation, album too long/expensive, poor choice of singles, stupid audience, or what have you), but this album is hardly short on strong material. In fact, you will find some of the most powerful tracks you've never heard on Faces. While I Am was probably the group's most sucessful album commercially, it also contained very limited subject matter, thanks to money-hungry outside songwriters and label execs.



Faces is an attempt to right this wrong both lyrically and musically. Starting with '73's Head To The Sky, the 1st 2 tracks on EW&F albums have been huge, and Faces is no exception. The first single, "Let Me Talk" snatches you back to the blistering funk missing from much of 1979's I Am, and addresses issues of the 80's. It's almost scary how Maurice says, "Fifty million voices mumbling from the street/Talkin' about the eighties and who it will mistreat", then you realize that he was part of the discussion! "Turn It Into Something Good" is the inspirationally airborne creativity you should expect from a group of this caliber, and should have been a single. You don't make songs like this overnight. After "Pride" you will be unable to comprehend why this album was considered a failure.



One reason why is apparent on the next track, "You", which is a musical knockoff of "After The Love Has Gone", and not quite as good, I might add. This is the first sign that EW&F were beginning to get too settled musically. Other musical knockoffs on this album, though all good are "Share Your Love" (September), the very danceable "Song In My Heart" (Singasong) and though one of my favorite cuts on the album, "Take It To The Sky" (That's The Way Of The World). To be honest, I will take a million "That's The Way Of The World"'s. One could argue that "Sparkle" is a knockoff of "Reasons", "Imagination" and "Keep Your Head To The Sky" in that it is yet another brilliant vocal performance by Philip Bailey overlooked by the masses. How could Columbia sleep at night without making THIS a sinlge?



Other standout cuts are the road-trip compatible "Back On The Road", the easy listening "Sailaway" and the very welcome jazz collage, "Faces". Even "In Time", which is the worst cut on the album, is still listenable. All in all, while this album lacks the total cohesiveness of All 'N All, it packs more quality material than a few of more heralded EW&F albums. Faces as a double LP only went gold, meaning 1.75 million more people own the double platinum I Am. All I can say is that they are missing out on what represents the last of the true EW&F sound.