Love this song I think 'Faces' is an uneven album,but this song is one of the highlights.

SoulAlive said:

I agree. For some reason, I pulled it off the shelf today and had to give it a spin. I still don't think it's horrible, but the songs don't fit well together for some reason.

daPrettyman said:

My main problem with 'Faces' is,there's not much variety throughout and many songs sound similiar.Considering that it is a 2-record set (which gave them alot of room to branch out and experiment),that's sorta disappointing.There are some fine songs on the record ("Sailaway","Share Your Love","Sailaway","Back On The Road","And Love Goes On") but I can't call it a masterpiece.

SoulAlive said:

I totally agree. What gets me is that the albums prior to Faces and after Faces are excellent. Maybe this was just a bad spot in their creativity.

daPrettyman said:

Yeah,I don't know what went wrong but 'Faces' was a rough transition into the 80s for EW&F.They redeemed themselves with the next album 'Raise',which was a return to form.

Words of note @ the "Faces" album. It was recorded on the heels of the HUGE success of "I Am"....and sessions were indulgently held entirely on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

Always smelled to me like a bit too much hubris in the air on this one.....

From the accompanying booklet to their box set, "The Eternal Dance".....

Maurice: "The industry was going through a major recession. Still, I felt that it was a strong album and a double album going gold around that time was hardly a failure."

'Faces' might have worked better as a single album,instead of being a 2-record set.

SIDE ONE---
Pride
Song In My Heart
Back On The Road
Share Your Love
Sailaway


SIDE TWO---
And Love Goes On
Win Or Lose
Take It To The Sky
Faces

I removed "Let Me Talk",which is one of their weakest singles,imo.From this new setlist,I would have chosen these three songs as the singles:

"And Love Goes On"
"Back On The Road"
"Sailaway"

SoulAlive said:[quote]'Faces' might have worked better as a single album,instead of being a 2-record set.

Perhaps....or maybe just a lil more time spent (and less of the FAT budget they were given) in a "workhorse" studio like United Sound Or Muscle Shoals.....might have produced a more cohesive set.

They did a lot of world travelling after "I Am"...and wanted to bring those experiences into the music (hence the ambitious "statement" of racial & cultural harmony that they envisioned for "Faces").

Bigger budgets & boat drinks don't equal better and conceptually salient work, IMHO.

It's the "lost" EWF album, I think. Sandwiched between "I Am" and "Raise". It may not have lived up to expectations, but it didn't have any arguably "sellout" tracks like "Boogie Wonderland" or "Let's Groove". It may have been the last "pure" EWF recording.....it was at least honest, I'd say.

in any case,I wish they would finally remaster 'Faces' and the several albums that came after it.Columbia/Legacy did a superb job remastering the 70s albums,they need to continue.

SoulAlive said:

I remember reading that they were going to remaster them (I think Japan got remasters but without bonus tracks). I remember someone specifically asking about the Raise album and they said the remaster was coming.

SoulAlive said:

Agreed.....esp "Raise" & "Powerlight".....would be great to have those in remastered digi form.

daPrettyman said:

I wish they would bring it on! A fresh remaster of 'Raise' would be great.

surprise anything from this album gets mention

SoulAlive said:

I loved Let Me Talk. To me,this song was by far the strongest cut on the
album as far as singles go. Other cuts i dug was Pride,Tell me Something
Good,Back on the road,and You. I don't like You as much now it sounds
very dated. Faces as a whole was EWF'S weakest album during their mid 70's
to Powerlight run.

phunkdaddy said:

I never really cared for "You".Always thought it was just an average ballad."Pride" is great....the strongest song on Side One,imo.On my revised tracklist,I made it the opening song.I think it had some potential as a single.

One song that I really like is the title track.THIS is the type of experimental track that the album needed more of!! Since it's a 2-record set,I was hoping they would stretch out a little more,try some new things,maybe even some jazz stuff...but throughout most of the record,they play it safe.That's fine if it was one record,but on a 2-record set,it can get really tedious.On a double album,you gotta shake things up,and not make every song sound alike.

SoulAlive said:

This song caught my ear also. I wish they would have done an instrumental album similar to this song.