Labels: Rise
Review by: Toby
For me, Face to Face have always been a favourite staple, a band I can always fall back on if I want some incredible timeless music, up there with bands like Snuff, Samiam or The Thermals; so this really pains me to review as Three Chords and a Half Truth is not just a bad Face to Face album (because let’s face it “” in previous circumstances a sub-par Face to Face album would still be head and shoulders over most bands) but it’s just a bad album full stop.
It’s understandable that after nine albums a band might want to change their sound up a bit but there’s a reason AC/DC don’t do this and it’s the same reason Face to Face shouldn’t “” they have a sound that defines them and it’s a bloody good one. I’m all for creativity but if you’re going to branch out from such a good sound and experiment then you better make damn well sure it’s not some half arsed Social Distortion rip off with some terrible rockabilly thrown in which sadly for myself and other face to face fans – this album is.
I feel like I should go into more detail and review track by track but all that’s going to amount to is a character assassination of a band I love and I don’t want to be that guy.
For me this album feels like the band are trying to push themselves to get a piece of the mainstream punk pie that bands like Against Me! Have been eating for a while, each song feels like it wants to be the album’s big sing-a-long anthem but that results in a really disjointed collection of sub-average Clash a-likes.
I’m gutted to have to write this review and it’s hard to believe it’s the same band that put out Big Choice and How to Ruin Everything so I’ll just pretend this album never happened and I hope that if they bring anything new out they might just stick to what they’re good at.