Faces' first studio album First Step was released in 1970. The band was composed of some members of Rock/R&B group Small Faces (Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Ian McLagen) and Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. In order to sell more copies, the album was often labeled as being made by Small Faces.
I'll cut the band some slack since it's their first record together but so far they've proved to be a pitifully boring R&B band. Most of the soloing is constricted, thin, and unexpressive and, even when the songwriting is decent, Rod Stewart--like he was with the Jeff Beck Group--sounds stylistically at odds with the band behind him. Some of the tracks end up working anyway but the only convincing one is the banjo-driven "Stone," which Stewart doesn't sing. On top of that, there's a disgraceful duet, two instrumental tracks that go nowhere, and five young men with terrible haircuts on the cover. C+
