I sit down to write this review and lo and behold, despite the hours I spent, in atleast a baker's dozen run through of listening to this album, I can only conjure to mind, four or five songs at best. The rest is like a lump of indistinguishable music that has hazy memories of being pleasant but beyond that, not even a chorus can be recalled. Ah well.
Blanc Faces is a good band and for a first effort especially, it's a very nice
AOR album with heavy American influences.
Comparisions have been drawn to another huge self titled debut from a few years back, Mecca, and they can definitely be heard here within, but the ingredients that make up the meat of this soup is chunky bits of 80s
Chicago ("Walk Away" and all that), 80s keyboard laden
Cheap Trick ("The Flame"), and many other bands. The obligatory
Journey nod. A splash of Starship. Hell, there's even some Survivor. It's all very much red, white and blue molded
AOR, which is a nice change of pace after a boatload of Scandi type bands have paraded through lately. Yet somehow the European bands seem to have more staying power in the memory banks.
Blanc Faces is a strange name for a band, as one person commented "White Faces?" Well, not quite. Its the brothers Blanc, Robbie on vox and Brian on a whole lotta instruments. Bass, rhythm guitar, percussion, organ, keyboards. Then you have Kyle Woodring on drums, Butch Taylor doing most of the guitar noodlings in the lead axe spot, and Jeff Battler on keys, of the board, piano and organ kind. "That's alot of keys" you might think, and yes, you would be right, since this thing is jam packed with keyboards, synthesizers and other means of ivory tickling. The album was mixed by one Dennis Ward, so you know the sound is crisp and fat without being too over the top.
So how about the songs? Since the disc is not with me, I will only comment on what can be recalled. The first four songs are really quite nice.
"Here's To You" is arena rock-ish but with even more keys than you would expect. The tempo is up there, and it has a kind of relaxed vibe all the same.
"Edge of the World" has huge hooks and a bountiful chorus.
"We'll Make the Best of It" is catchy, heartfelt in places but still uptempo like the first two tracks, yet suffers from repetition.
"Stranger to Love" has more lasting power, since the
Blanc Faces seem to do ballads the best. In fact, it's so good, even though again, a little too much on the repetitive side, that it makes me wonder if the guys should have just done an all-ballad disc. Something to consider next time around perhaps?
"Sorry for the Heartache" is another rock-ier song done right, and sticks in the mind better than some of the others. The closer,
"We Will Rise" is moody and soft in the middle and is a good way to end the disc.
And there's this one ballad where Robbie Blanc hits a few notes that sounds like it is coming from the throat of Robin Zander from
Cheap Trick. I believe that was on
"It's Little too Late" but could be mistaken. It also seems like this was the track that was so heavily reminiscent of
Signal and the "Loud N Clear" album. You know that one was killer, so this is definitely a song that deserves a doubletake.
For some reason the middle of the album just congeals together and while it's not horrible, or even dislikeable, just comes across as being forgettable.
Blanc Faces' debut also is not a cd that can be looped over and over again, as I did with what some might think to be an inferior disc, Broke[N]Blue. It's just too same-y, and most songs are like a flashback, familiar yet new, borrowing much from the bands of yesterday.
Is it a good album though? Yes. Will fans of
AOR enjoy this? Absolutely, in fact, with the slick production and pleasing song lineup, it's probably a must purchase for you guys that are fans of this genre. Personally, after all the hype, I was hoping for more, but going the safe route is not something that should strike against them or in the end shouldn't tarnish their effort completely. Recommended for those in the right mindset who are looking for safe, friendly, and not earth shattering, music.
Written by
Alanna Wednesday, August 10, 2005
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