![]() Five-A-Side (an Ace album) Ace Anchor 2001 Released: March 1975 Chart Peak: #11 Weeks Charted: 22
In its trenchant songwriting and engaging harmony singing, Ace emulates a number of American bands with similar virtues. "Rock & Roll Runaway" mimics the anguished singing of the Band, while "How Long" revives the Philadelphia dynamics of Hall and Oates's "She's Gone." Eventually, Ace may attain the unity of vision possessed by other bands against whom it may be measured, like Steely Dan and the Eagles. Meanwhile, this is an encouraging debut with many pleasant but minor songs, and at least two, "Time Ain't Long" and "How Long" with immediate hit potential. - Wayne Robins, Rolling Stone, 5/8/75. Bonus Reviews!
- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981. Five-A-Side, Ace's debut album, is notable for introducing the world to the soulful singing talent of Paul Carrack, especially on the hit "How Long," which went to #1 on some charts in 1975. The band has a low-key style, frequently dominated by Carrack's piano and organ work, that is sometimes suggestive of Traffic and of the Tulsa country-rock sound of J.J. Cale, Delaney & Bonnie, and Leon Russell, although they never work up quite as much of a sweat as the last two. Already road-weary when they made this album, Ace, especially in Carrack's lyrics, comments extensively on the travails of being in a struggling rock & roll band. Even "How Long," which sounds like the lament of a lover betrayed, is really about somebody quitting the group. All of which makes the irony of the song's being their sole hit all the more acute. * * * * - William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995. The original Ace albums -- the best being Five-A-Side from 1975 -- are worth searching for for a taste not only of Paul Carrack's early days but also of the roots from which he and a good chunk of what became known as New Wave sprang from. * * * - Eric Deggans, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996. |
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