Oh, Face to Face. You take me back to high school. To Lacie’s beat-up Subaru on the way home from Savannah, singing along to “Disconnected” buzzed on several coffee house free refills that we drank while pretending so hard to be hip. We weren’t, of course, but that’s what’s fun about going back to those days. We barely knew what hip was, anyway.
Face to Face weren’t hip either, but I can still sing along to most of these songs despite not having heard them in at least 6 years, and I can’t help dancing in my seat a bit or tapping out the frenetic drumbeat on my steering wheel. And yes, I said weren’t–this collection comes on the heels of the band’s decision to hang it up. More reason to pick this up now, I suppose.
Melodic, harmonic pop-punk/power-pop/whatever the hell you want to call it, thankfully minus that bratty voice that so many of those bands have. Face to Face are still a good time even out of high school, and I can’t say that for all the bands I listened to then. “Disconnected” and “You Lied” still resonate, and hell, when it came down to it, they were a tight, talented band who wrote good personal songs that you can actually understand and sing along with. Today’s pop-punk bands should take note: you don’t really have to sound like you sing through your nose or rip off Green Day to be any good. And also, remember to go out on a good note.
