face to face: Ignorance is Bliss

face to face: Ignorance is Bliss

1999

Beyond Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Overcome  2. In Harm's Way  3. Burden  4. Everyone Hates a Know-It-All  5. Heart of Hearts  6. Prodigal  7. Nearly Impossible  8. I Know What You Are  9. The Devil You Know (God Is a Man  10. (A)Pathetic  11. Lost  12. Run in Circles  13. Maybe Next Time



Apparently, punk is just a tempo to most people. face to face slow things down and instantly the results are loudly trumpeted as "not punk" by the fans. It's like a burlier version of emo mixed with SoCal pop punk. And the speedier fare on the album more closely resembles post-punk than pop-punk. In reality, you could probably double-time the bass and drums on a lot of this and the results would likely sound like the last album. Still, Trever Keith sounds great on those big-lunged, long melodies that a lot of these songs sport.

I don't know. I was kind of expecting the band to do an album like this. This was when emo was breaking through and the pop-punk bands were starting to sound a bit stale to a lot of people. And the previous album already hinted at this direction. I remember buying this during the autumn of '99 and it felt like the right record at the right time. And despite the lackluster first single ("The Devil You Know," which is probably my least favorite song on the album, next to the overly emo-ish closer "Maybe Next Time") I like this album a lot and only see it as a very slight step down.

"Burden," "Everyone Hates a Know-It-All," "Heart of Hearts," and "Nearly Impossible" are all killer tracks, with huge melodies, vocals and a fascinatingly spacious atmosphere. And like the previous album, the pure sound of the record is great. Everything is loud, clear and set for maximum impact. And I have to add "Lost" to the pile of all-time great face to face tracks. It's where this new direction  crystallizes and I find myself not missing the skull-rattling speed of "Don't Turn Away" and "Big Choice" at all. I realize I would be perfectly fine with a more mature face to face churning out this kind of material well into their twilight years...

Some copies of this album came with an additional EP called "Why Aren't You Happy?" but I don't have that version. I remember running across it at a Best Buy but I already bought "Ignorance is Bliss" once already and didn't feel like shelling out another $15.00 just to get a four more songs. But the song "Bottle Rockets" from that EP is pretty boss, although I think the choice to include it on a separate EP was a good one, because it sounds a bit more "Big Choice" or self-titled than most of the stuff on "Ignorance is Bliss." I can picture a lot of punks walking around saying, "The only good song on the album is Bottle Rockets!" The rest of the songs on the EP are pretty dispensable though, if you ask me...

Alright, let's listen to some face to face. Here's "Lost." So get lost, eh?