Product Description

The Who's first album of the '80s and their first without drum maniac Keith Moon was viewed with cynicism by many longtime Who fans, who declared the band a dead issue. In fact, FACE DANCES was arguably the band's last aesthetically successful album. The reckless abandon of the Moon era was irretrievable, but the Who's sound was maturing all along, and Moon's madness fit Townshend's mature, sophisticated tunes less and less. FACE DANCES is no bland-out, but the band mines the subtle end of their dynamic range more extensively and successfully than ever before.
With the advancing years, thetension between Townshend's thoughtful lyrics and the rock-hero bravado of Roger Daltrey's delivery had grown more pronounced, charging these songs with subtextual energy. Guest Rabbit Bundrick's keyboards add colour to Townshend's increasingly introspective examinations of adult relationships and responsibilites (sounds boring as hell, but really it's not)on "Another Tricky Day" and "How Can You Do It Alone". Entwistle's bass still rages and rumbles like a nuclear submarine, and the band's fire still rages on FACE DANCES, albeit with a bit more finesse.

Track Listing

1. You Better You Bet
2. Don't Let Go The Coat
3. Cache Cache
4. The Quiet One
5. Did You Steal My Money
6. How Can You Do It Alone
7. Daily Records
8. You
9. Another Tricky Day
10. I Like Nightmares
11. It's In You
12. Somebody Saved Me
13. How Can You Do It Alone
14. The Quiet One

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4092 in Music
• Released on: 1997-05-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Running time: 63 minutes

Customer Reviews

Moonless
It says it all, without Moonie. He said praising with a faint damn, this is not a bad album. Let's face it any Townsend penned song has got to be ok, at least. There are some bright moments but it does not have the energy that say Who's Next layers on in abundance. It is without the greatest rock drummer of all time. Keith Moon was dare I say it an essential part of the Who, they were and have been never the same iconoclastic all fireworks rock band. This album is a case in point. I bought it when it first came out on vinyl and I enjoyed a couple of listens and then it was placed at the end of my alphabetically arranged (Iknow) collection and has been aired seldomly since. You can never recover your youth and this album is too safe for the Who. Nice cover though. As an after thought when we are all sitting around in the old folks home will we be singing along to Who are You?

The Who limping on
These days I tend to practice what I call 'manual data compression',storing 2 poor-to-middling cds in a single slimline double case,not only because I would run out of room otherwise but because two such albums in one such package justifies that amount of space and no more.
Face Dances is an example of such an album.It has plenty of misfires.You Better You Bet is OK but still too poppy for me.
This album is saved by the superb Another Tricky Day.If you can get the cd of this album -especially if you get at a low price- you'llbe rewarded by this track alone.It is excellent.A true rocker which shows that the Who could still pull it off when they set their minds to it,and not rely on any cliched stomp-rock from Entwistle,who is a master bass-man and no mean artist but not a great songwriter.So,overall, this album just about manages a satisfactory 2 stars and no more.Double it up with Its Hard, which also has one or two decent ones among the dross.

an underrated treasure
As some of the reviews clearly show, this album is not well regarded by Who fans in general. And you can see why. It lacks the visceral bombast of the classic 'Who's Next' or the expansive imagination of 'Tommy' or 'Quadraphenia'.
But I have always really enjoyed it. I think it fits far better if considered alongside the two Pete Townshend solo albums that he released before and after it. It is far more of a piece with 'Empty Glass' and 'All the best cowboys have chinese eyes' than with The Who's golden era.
If you like the introspective and sometimes painfully confessional songwriting of those two albums, then you may find that on Face Dances Townshend reveals his bruised soul (shorn of grand allegories) as on no other record.
A quiet classic.