FACE TO FACE

Here is an album that will make most Prog fans cringe! It represents everything that was wrong with the 80's. The synthesiser sounds, the drums sounds, the commercial nature of the songs, the cheesy lyrics, etc., etc. With no less than four songs with the word 'love' in the title; Prisoner Of Your Love, He Said Love, You Need Love and On The Wings Of Love! Even the song Alone In The Night has the L-word in its chorus! This is too much to stomach!

He who said 'love' was none other than Jesus, of course! Again! How many songs can one and the same band write about Jesus? The song is very much another Hymn - a Hymn for the 80's, really!

Most of the songs on Face To Face are very syrupy and very lightweight 80's Pop. Needless to say there is hardly anything progressive about this music. The production is the typical 80's one that we all know well by now. The guitar sound is alright, but the drums, bass and keyboards sound a bit thin and timid. Still, this is clearly a professional recording, made by professional musicians. But you have to have something interesting to record in order to make a good album. This is clearly a band on autopilot adjusting to the times.

African is a very cheesy song that is very difficult to take seriously despite dealing with a serious topic. If they want to convey some important message, their attempt is clearly lost. There is, however, one very good song on this album. It is called Kiev and is a very beautiful, folky song with (something that sounds like) mandolin and beautiful vocals and lyrics. Its mood reminds a little bit of Marillion's Estonia. It is hard to believe that such a good song is on such an overall bad album. But even this song is not Prog, of course.

'Bland' is a pretty good description of this music. 'Cheesy' also applies to several tracks, and 'awful' applies very well to many of the lyrics.

Together with the previous Victim Of Changes, Face To Face is Barclay James Harvest's worst album. Really only worth listening to for Kiev.

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