The Face Dancer debut ‘This World’ is a fantastic album, and one which 70’s pomp fans constantly refer back to in the archive category.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Face Dancer
ALBUM: This World
LABEL: Capitol
SERIAL: ST-11934
YEAR: 1979
CD REISSUE: 2009, Rock Candy Records (UK), CANDY044
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Carey Kress – vocals * Jeff Adams – guitars * David Utter – guitars * Scott McGinn – bass, keyboards * Billy Trainor – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Red Shoes * 02 Can’t Stand Still * 03 Change * 04 If I Could Kiss You * 05 The Sphinx * 06 Cry Baby * 07 Heart’s At Home * 08 Hard To Please * 09 Time Bomb * 10 When You Said
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
The Face Dancer debut ‘This World’ is a fantastic album, and one which 70’s pomp fans constantly refer back to in the archive category. From Maryland, these guys have an different approach, fusing hard pop, pomp, and AOR. Not quite sure how they do it, but hey, it’s worth a listen. Their history is covered off in a three part interview series which we conducted with Billy Trainor back in 2003.
Their redeeming features would be a comparison to Queen, plus the heavy handed drum work from Trainor, and Jeff Adams magic guitar tone, which resembles that wacky piece of vinyl that was the Russia album. The production afforded by Richie Wise certainly leads Face Dancer to being strikingly unique, but don’t get me wrong, these guys may be quirky, but they certainly ain’t wacky.
The Songs
Face Dancer standards such as ‘Red Shoes’ and ‘Time Bomb’ are as well known today as they were back then. Adam’s searing guitar is a standout feature on’ Can’t Stand Still’.
I love the tempo shift in the track ‘Change’, where the tempo does indeed change from Freddie Mercury flavoured slowboat speed, to kick ass acceleration. Check out the midsection where they spin into a frenzied twin guitar attack with Trainor’s heavy backbeat providing the metronome.
My favourite track is ‘If I Could Kiss You’, which has some pomp approved keyboards within. Not far behind is the hard htting urgency of ‘Cry Baby’. They change tack for the acoustic based ‘Heart’s At Home’ and then head off into Rolling Stones territory with the bluesy ‘Hard To Please’.
In Summary
Definitely a band which plays in a tongue and cheek style, and their sound is either gonna turn you on or off, depending which side of the bed you sleep on. The band followed this up with their second album ‘About Face’ a year later, a more straight forward effort. Despite falling off the planet for a few years, the band did occasionally get together for a reunion gig or two.
And out of the blue, came a reunion album of sorts: ‘Midnite Raid’ which came out as a private pressing in 1990, and considering it’s in CD format, is now about as rare as anything. As many regular Glory Daze readers are aware, Face Dancer returned to the scene during 2003, as well as a more recent effort in 2016. All of their studio albums were re-released on CD, plus there was a self released live album which was released during 2003. We’ve reviewed every album so far, click the tag below.
Video
Can’t Stand Still
