1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 236. Faces – A Nod’s As Good As A Wink …To A Blind Horse (1971)

 

I liked this one; it’s some solid Early Seventies radio-friendly rock which, although it takes elements of country, of blues, and early rock and roll (with a cover of Chuck Berry’s Memphis), isn’t clearly any of those things, but a sound all of its own. There’s a bit of the stomp of Glam, but not overtly so, and it’s almost the “power trio” of guitar, bass and drums, but then Ian McLagan’s keyboards add so much texture to the tracks that it’s an indispensable part of the sound.

Rod Stewart takes most of the vocal duties, but bassist Ronnie Lane sings a few of his own compositions – You’re So Rude, Last Orders Please, and Debris, which with their lyrics of working class life sound a little like Squeeze, and to me are probably the best tracks on an album of very listenable tunes. The well-known one is Stay With Me, and if you know how this goes you’ll get the measure of the style of the songs on this album but, unlike this kind of music can be, they all sound different to each other; there are none that sound like the same song done with one note change in the pre-chorus.