Before we delve into today’s review a few words of reflection on rock legend Ace Frehley, original (and best) guitarist for KISS. Frehley died earlier this week, leave a sadness in my heart that needs expressing
The first record I ever bought (by any artist) was “Destroyer” which was the beginning of a long (and continuing) love affair with KISS that included mailing away to join the KISS Army (you got biographies and a KISS Army T-shirt in addition to membership. It was a pretty cool thing to show up in a little kid’s mailbox).
Back then I was obsessed with frontman Paul Stanley and the showmanship of Gene Simmons. Frehley was a distant third. This did not last, however, and as I got older I saw Frehley more and more for what he was – the heart and soul of the band, with his strident spaceman guitar riffs grounding what could otherwise very easily descend into theatre (and kind of did after he left).
Frehley was the best of KISS. His remains the best of the four solo albums the band released in 1978 (read the review way back at Disc 94) and while I don’t have any of his later albums fronting his own band, I’ve heard plenty of good tracks off them.
Through his life Frehley battled many a demon (yes, I went there) but at the core all he ever wanted was to rock and roll. I’ll miss him.
On to the review.
Disc 1870 is… Middle Spoon
Artist: Cheekface
Year of Release: 2025
What’s up with the Cover? An invasive rock dove (aka a pigeon) enjoying its natural food source in the urban jungle – discarded fries.
How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a fan of Cheekface since 2021, and this was just me buying their latest record.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Cheekface albums, of which “Middle Spoon” is the most recently released. “Middle Spoon” comes in…fourth. It isn’t bad, but competition is tough.
Ratings: 3 stars
Cheekface returns with “Middle Spoon” their fourth album in five years and if you are wondering if they remain as ironic, detached and full of clever lyrics with an undercurrent of social commentary the answer is…yes! This band knows what they do well, and as they enter the middle years of their career they continue to stick with it.
When you first listen to “Middle Spoon” it would be easy to just tap your feet and sing along, reveling in vocalist/lyricist Greg Katz’s clever wordplay at a surface level. This is OK, and also rather easy, given Katz deploys a spoken word delivery that requires no verbal gymnastics to keep up.
However, despite hooks that are consistently brilliant, Cheekface is more than just good times, as they explore dark content through the unlikely vehicle of ebullient pop ditties.
The best example (and best song on the record) is “Living Lo-Fi”, a song that is catchy as hell, starting with a beat-forward fun organ bit and then hitting a chorus that is both energetic and even passably danceable. It also starts with Cheekface’s greatest weapon: off-kilter and clever lyrics. In this case, we start with:
“Cigarettes can kill you
But if they don’t they make you stronger.”
Not great self-care advice but, you know, funny.
But before too long we are descending into what it is like to live on the edge (or under the edge) of poverty. “Living Lo-Fi” isn’t something to aspire to, it’s something to see around you every day as you drive past tent cities and it is seriously not funny. And that’s Cheekface.
There are plenty of quotable lines on “Middle Spoon” and the level of content in that regard is as strong as any of their previous records, but overall the record is a slight step backward musically.
Yes, there are still great hook-riddled tunes like “Living Lo-Fi” and “Flies” and “Growth Sux” but there are also songs that do the inevitable when you’re walking line this thick with irony – you cross over into kitsch.
The worst offender on the album is “Content Baby” which I believe is about social media content or something. I’m not sure. Yeah, I know you’re probably reading this one of two social media-adjacent platforms but trust me when I say I am at the very shallow end of that lake.
That said, I know a forced metaphor when I hear one, and lines like “treat me like your content baby/you have my consent to share me” are darlings that should have died on the studio floor.
This gets to the heart of the hairpin turn Cheekface’s music attempts to navigate at high speeds. They are very much about pointing out the plastic, hollowed-out aspects of modern culture, and the inherent ickiness of some of its worst features. But as a band that riffs off Nietzsche quotes would know, when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
On previous albums Cheekface does a better job of orbiting that event horizon. On “Middle Spoon” they get sucked in a couple of times, but overall this record is still good solid fun…and not fun…which is exactly what you want in a Cheekface record.
Best tracks: Living Lo-Fi, Flies, Growth Sucks
