Face Dances by The Who

Face Dances, the Who's ninth studio album, arrived in 1981, on Polydor in Britain and on Warner Bros. in America, the band's first release for that label. It's the first of only two Who studio albums with Kenney Jones behind the kit, the ex-Small Faces and Faces drummer who took on the impossible job after Keith Moon's death, and you can hear the change: tight, tidy and steady where Moon used to sound like he was throwing the drums down the stairs.

Bill Szymczyk produced it with a clean, radio-ready polish, John "Rabbit" Bundrick's keyboards fill out the corners, and Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle keep the engine running under Pete Townshend's songs. "You Better You Bet" is the keeper, bright and bouncing. Reviews were mixed, but it still went to number four in the US and number two at home. By 1983 a weary Townshend had split the band.

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