Faces

Faces-Ooh La La-24-192-WEB-FLAC-REMASTERED-2015-OBZEN
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 00:30:33 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover

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Faces – The Complete Faces: 1971-1973 (Remastered) (2014/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:39:35 minutes | 5,90 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records

Man, we’re rolling out a lot of complete-album sets this week, aren’t we? This one might be the smallest of the bunch, but it’s easily as impressive – and contains material that’s at least as influential – as the other two sets we’ve spoken of. For all the flack that Rod Stewart’s gotten over the years, there are at least four reasons to cut him some slack, and these are them: First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod Is as Good as a Wink…to a Blind Horse (1971), and Ooh La La (1973). The camaraderie between Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones is about as good as early ‘70s rock got, and if you haven’t had the opportunity to experience it in all its glory, then we envy you the opportunity to pick up this set and bask in it for the first time.

First Step (1970)
Long Player (1971)
A Nod Is as Good as a Wink…to a Blind Horse (1971)
Ooh La La (1973)

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Faces – The Complete Faces: 1971-1973 (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:39:18 minutes | 3,30 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records

When Steve Marriott left the Small Faces in 1969, the three remaining members brought in guitarist Ron Wood and lead singer Rod Stewart to complete the lineup and changed their name to the Faces, which was only appropriate since the group now only slightly resembled the mod-pop group of the past. Instead, the Faces were a rough, sloppy rock & roll band, able to pound out a rocker like “Had Me a Real Good Time,” a blues ballad like “Tell Everyone,” or a folk number like “Richmond” all in one album. Stewart, already becoming a star in his own right, let himself go wild with the Faces, tearing through covers and originals with abandon. While his voice didn’t have the power of Stewart, bassist Ronnie Lane’s songs were equally as impressive and eclectic. Wood’s rhythm guitar had a warm, fat tone that was as influential and driving as Keith Richards’ style.

Notorious for their hard-partying, boozy tours and ragged concerts, the Faces lived the rock & roll lifestyle to the extreme. When Stewart’s solo career became more successful than the Faces, the band slowly became subservient to his personality; after their final studio album, Ooh La La, in 1973, Lane left the band. After a tour in 1974, the band called it quits. Wood joined the Rolling Stones, drummer Kenny Jones eventually became part of the Who, and keyboardist Ian McLagan became a sought-after supporting musician; Stewart became a superstar, although he never matched the simple charm of the Faces.

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Faces – Long Player (1971/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 45:22 minutes | 1,72 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records

On their second album Long Player, the Faces truly gel — which isn’t quite the same thing as having the band straighten up and fly right because in many ways this is album is even more ragged than their debut, with tracks that sound like they were recorded through a shoebox thrown up against a couple of haphazardly placed live cuts. But if the album seems pieced together from a few different sources, the band itself all seems to be coming from the same place, turning into a ferocious rock & roll band who, on their best day, could wrestle the title of greatest rock & roll band away from the Stones. Certainly, the sheer force of the nine-minute jam on Big Bill Broonzy’s “I Feel So Good” proves that, but what’s more remarkable is how the band are dovetailing as songwriters, complementing and collaborating with very different styles, to the extent that it’s hard to tell who wrote what; indeed, the ragged, heartbroken “Tell Everyone” sounds like a Stewart original, but it comes from the pen of Ronnie Lane. The key is that Stewart, Lane and Ron Wood (Ian McLagan only co-write “Bad ‘N’ Ruin”) are all coming from the same place, all celebrating a rock & roll that’s ordinary in subject but not in sound. Take “Bad ‘N’ Ruin,” the tale of a ne’er do well returning home with his tail between his legs, after the city didn’t treat him well. It has its counterpart in “Had Me a Real Good Time,” where a reveler insists that he has to leave, concluding that he was glad to come but also glad to get home. These are songs that celebrate home, from family to the neighborhood, and that big heart beats strong in the ballads, too, from the aching “Sweet Lady Mary” to the extraordinary reworking of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed,” which soars in ways Macca’s exceptional original never did. Then, there’s there humor — the ramshackle “On the Beach,” the throwaway lines from Rod on “Had Me a Real Good Time” — which give this a warm, cheerful heart that helps make Long Player a record as big, messy, and wonderful as life itself.

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Faces – Faces (Live at John Peel’s Sunday Concert, 13 May 1971) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:00:07 minutes | 382 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nice Records

The Faces (Russian Faces; from English – “Faces”) – British rock band, formed in 1969 by three members of The Small Faces (Ronnie Lane, Kenny Jones, Ian McLagan), who replaced the departed Steve Marriott invited Rod Stewart and Ron Wood from The Jeff Beck Group.
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