Long Player - THE FACES****

Bad 'N' Ruin/Tell Everyone/Sweet Lady Mary/Richmond/Maybe I'm Amazed/Had Me A Real Good Time/On The Beach/I Feel So Good/Jerusalem

Long Player was the second album release from the hard rocking Faces featuring vocalist Rod Stewart in his prime. His solo career would soon achieve lift off leading to an eventual taming of his sound. (US:29 UK:31)

“A somewhat tighter and less ramshackle version of the debut album, with a really nice cover of Maybe I'm Amazed acting as its lynchpin. This was back in the day when a prominent Rod Stewart was a benefit and not a detriment to a song.”

“Not their best effort but it's still not bad. Had Me A Real Good Time sends off a great vibe and there are some toe-tappers on this LP. The band gets raunchy and rowdy with some cool guitar riffs on most tracks. Rod’s vocals don't grate my nerves yet.”

“A real step up from the debut but it is still padded out with filler. Bad ‘N’ Ruin is a real favourite of mine from the group with the funkiest riff any band could ever lay out, with a coruscating vocal from Rod.”

“The boys have found their groove and on Maybe I'm Amazed show just how really good they could be. They were probably playing footy and knocking back the odd brandy or ten at the time they recorded it too.”

“On Long Player the Faces sound more bluesy, and at times more like Rod Stewart's handpicked touring band. Ronnie Lane stands out with a couple of great tunes, a shared vocal with Rod on a great cover of McCartney's classic Maybe I'm Amazed, and his always wonderful bass, the spine of all Faces records. This was back in the days when Rod Stewart still had some soul and could sing folk, rock, R & B and pub tunes all on the same album without missing a step. He's in fine form here, as he was on most Faces records.”

“It's a little bit of a mixed bag, with two live numbers, some hard rock, and a couple of tender ballads. Rod Stewart sings one of them, the charming Tell Everyone, and Ronnie Lane takes a lead vocal on the other, the country-ish Richmond, but both of them are penned by Lane, the band's excellent ballad writer. A live rendition of Big Bill Broonzy's I Feel So Good is good but much too long at almost nine minutes. The other live number, a gritty take on Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed is really great, as is the folkish Sweet Lady Mary and the delightful, tough rocker Had Me A Real Good Time.”