Faces
Ooh La La - Warner 1973
Tracks:
(Only Lane songs listed)
1. Flags and Banners / 2. Fly in the Ointment / 3. If I'm on the Late Side / 4. Glad and Sorry / 5. Just Another Honky / 6. Ooh La La
Comments:
This Faces album from 1973 would turn out to be the group's final. It's also the album where Ronnie Lane gets his strongest imprint. Rod Stewart experienced great personal success as a solo artist at this time, and he does not appear on more tracks on "Ooh La La". This logically gave more space to the other members of the group where Ronnie Lane has writer credits on six of the album's 10 tracks. Moreover this has meant that "Ooh La La" comes out as the most subdued of the four Faces albums.
The big hit on the album is "Cindy Incidentally", which is a melodic pop song with a lot of kinship to Rod Stewart's classic "Maggie Mae". It is also really the only significant track where Lane does not have writer credits. Among the other songs, "Lanes" are clearly the strongest. He even sings the folkish "Flags and Banners", which he co-wrote with Stewart. The two also co-wrote the fine ballad "If You're on the Late Side", which here is sung by Rod Stewart. Stewart also sings Lane's subdued and fine "Just Another Honky".
It is, however, the final song and title track, "Ooh La La" which is album's finest track is. This one Lane co-wrote with Ron Wood, who also takes the lead vocals. It’s another folkish and melodic tune.
I feel that The Faces never became the cohesive and creative entity that The Small Faces was before, and you can only resent that songwriter couple Steve Marriott / Ronnie Lane did not continue their great collaboration that gave us classics like "Tin Soldier" , "Itchycoo Park", "Lazy Sunday", "Afterglow" and many more.
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