“Disconnected”
by Face to Face
from the album Big Choice
1994
Buy the album on Amazon

In my first year of college, I met my friend Brendan, and in between watching boat loads of horror movies and drinking boat loads of cookies and cream shakes at Village Inn, we listened to and talked about a whole lot of music. We already had some crossover favorites, but he also got me into a bunch of punk (or punk-ish) bands – NOFX, Blink 182, Pennywise, Propagandhi, and, you guessed it, Face to Face. Though there’s certainly a time for the lightheartedness of the first two bands, I always appreciated that Face to Face was more sincere without being super hardcore, and I love the singer’s voice.

This song was their biggest hit – big enough to warrant its own Wikipedia page. – and was also on the Tank Girl (yay Lori Petty!) and National Lampoon’s Senior Trip soundtracks. The original version is on their debut album Don’t Turn Away, and stood out to me even then. It was then included on their Over it EP, and, because that version started getting a lot of airplay, a third version was recorded and included on this album. There’s an amusing track right before this that’s a recording between the band and their record exec, talking about including this song on the album, and the band is saying they don’t want to do it and be labelled sell-outs. It ends with one of the band members saying “no offense, but there is no way in hell this song is going on this record”, which of course leads right into this song.

You don’t know a thing about me
Is there something that you should know?
I can tell you what you wanna hear
Let your inhibitions just go

No, you don’t know what you will give up
No, you don’t know what you will give up
You don’t know what you want
It may take you years to find out
You don’t know what you need
It’s something that may never come to you

Trust is something that comes easy
When you’ve never been a victim
Lies and promises and words are said
It’s your decision to accept them

No, you don’t know what you will give up
No, you don’t know what you will give up
You don’t know what you want
It may take you years to find out
You don’t know what you need
It’s something that may never come to you

My two favorite Face to Face songs are “Blind” and “A-OK” (also 5 stars each, and undoubtedly future posts), but this one has still been played often and loud.

Side note: The tough part of the 5-star shuffle is that if you let it keep going, then more and more songs keep coming up that I want to post. Hello “Killing in the Name”!