When I first heard Let’s Face It I was 9 years old, living in a two-bed two-bath apartment with my brother and parents. For my birthday that year I received the first three albums I would ever own. Those albums were the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Let’s Face It, Third Eye Blind’s self-titled debut Third Eye Blind (one of my favorite albums of all-time), and the Backstreet Boys’ Backstreet Boys. I loved all three of these albums for one reason or another, and there’s something special about listening to each of them today. As I listened I even got a bit nostalgic and missed the process of getting out of your seat, riffling through your CD collection to find the right disk, and then putting the CD into the boombox. Asking “Alexa” to play it wasn’t the same.
I forgot who it was but someone once told me “ska sounds like the genre of music that’s playing on a loop in a toddler’s head.” It’s always stuck me as an incredibly poignant observation. Let’s Face It, with its raucous horn sections, clean guitars strummed on the upbeat, and drum patterns heavy on the kick drum, is literally the manifestation of the insuppressible energy of a toddler running around the house at 8am in the morning. As a father of a toddler, I can assure you The Mighty Mighty Bosstones captures that energy perfectly.
Let’s Face It is just a solid album, but it is filled with some really great songs. “The Impression That I Get” easily cracks my top 90 from the 90’s list. Peak ska energy. Felt just like it did the first time.
Standout Songs: “The Impression That I Get”, “Royal Oil”, “The Rascal King”
