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Gameface:
Four to Go
You can always count on Gameface to deliver a power-pop punch a la Husker Du and Meat Puppets. Their latest release Four to Go bears no exception. They have typified all that was Alternative Pop-Rock since the mid-1990's, and their progression from their hard-to-find debut Three To Get Ready to this album demonstrates that this is a band that does not sacrifice their original sound for a mainstream-friendly crowd in an effort to fill up venues. Generally speaking, Gameface fans wouldn't be reading this, because they would have already snapped up Four to Go the day of its release. Why, you might ask? Well, Gameface fans know what to expect but can also anticipate a few surprises along the way. Before Four to Go, the band released two EPs (2001's Feels a Lot Better and 2003's Natural Selection) just to show their fans that they can mix it up between the old and the new. While Feels a Lot Better has endearing covers of Elvis Costello and Morrissey classics, it also gives the listener an idea of how far Gameface has progressed in terms of musicianship. Four To Go continues in a similar vein, where the shoddy recordings of the old days are gone and replaced by elements of humility and tenderness. This is exemplified in "The Word" and "Crash Course in Polite Conversation," but these two softly performed songs are anomalies. If this is your introduction to Gameface, you might try to say that they are just ripping off Matchbox 20 as opposed to the other way around, which is more accurate. Gameface has always faced criticism from people unwilling to distinguish them from their contemporaries such as Jawbreaker and Texas is the Reason, so that might be why there are a handful of cuts on Four to Go that sound to the casual listener as if they were already hit singles back in 1994, a time when a random teenager would be asked what kind of music she listened to only to answer by stating "Alternative" rather than using an adjective to describe his/her taste. However one scary moment on the album is the chorus on "Give Me Something Real," when you think of Natalie Imbruglia singing the same melody, "This is How I Feel" in "Torn." These are just a few reasons why Four to Go is for die-hards only, but not in the sense that only a completist needs it, rather because anyone who joins this late in the game is simply not going to understand that this band that thrives on its own intensity. Gameface pours out yet another promising batch of songs that continue to be anthems for disillusion and confusion, but the 13-year-old Good Charlotte/New Found Glory fans out there will probably lack the maturity to appreciate these songs.
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