Face to Face

Aging gracefully in punk rock is a difficult thing to do. Given that so much of the genre is built off of youth energy, there's something a little disconcerting about watching 40-year olds singing about "the man" keeping them down. On their first album since 2002's How to Ruin Everything, '90s So-Cal vets Face to Face put all fears to rest with furious opener "Should Anything Go Wrong," easily one of the most aggressive tunes in their formidable catalogue. Meanwhile, lead single "It's All About You" hearkens back to the band's '90s heydays of melodic riffing and sing-along choruses. The rest of the album fails to match this opening salvo, but is by no means a washout. Laugh Now, Laugh Later seeks to recapture the Face to Face fans fell in love with on records like Big Choice, eschewing the stylistic diversions of their post-major label albums. Not everything works ― "Bombs Away" is essentially a rewrite of "Ordinary," from their self-titled record ― but when it does, Laugh Now, Laugh Later recaptures the magic of old.