Album Review: Peter Holsapple – The Face of 68

I’m on record – at least I think I am – that for me, the greatest present-day lyricist is none other than Peter Holsapple. While he’s lent his considerable talents to the work of others – R.E.M. and Hootie et. al. most prominent among them – Holsapple is best known for his work with The dB’s and the Continental Drifters. Yes, there’s much else, all of it worthy, but those are the most high-profile projects with which he’s been involved.

Holsapple’s gifts with words have graced projects that would have already been great — five-star great, I’m tellin’ ya – even without them. His pair of albums with Chris Stamey – Mavericks and Here and Now, separated by many years – are stuffed with his rich and never self-conscious wordplay. So news of a new album from the man is cause for celebration in these quarters.

Then I listen to the album, and find it exceeds my already impossibly high expectations. The title – much less the cover art – for The Face of 68 doesn’t telegraph what this album is going to sound like. But then, that good-natured bit of misdirection is a hallmark of Holsapple’s work. When I heard the title of his single of a few years back was “Don’t Mention the War,” I immediately conjured visions of a Fawlty Towers sketch. It was no such thing; instead, it was a serious and heartfelt song.

And I appreciate that approach. Make us work a little, because you certainly did.

Working with a tight and like-minded set of players – Rob Ladd, Ben Folds Five’s Robert Sledge, Mark Simonsen, producer/musician Don Dixon and Marti Jones (Dixon) – Holsapple serves up a straightforward set of tunes the likes of which a man with less life experience simply could not countenance, much less create. The 11 songs on The Face of 68 are heartfelt and couched in arrangements that feel here-and-now, intimate and unvarnished but never sloppy or less than skillfully executed.

Holsapple’s lyrics often speak directly to a specific listener, but one need not be that person — nor even identify with them – to find the words resonant. He’s an everyman of the most articulate sort, and he expresses thoughts and sentiments that will make the listener think, “Yeah, I’ve thought that, but not in such an articulate manner.” Dixon’s production aesthetic is so note-perfect as to render itself invisible; these songs sound like Peter Holsapple and his pals playing these songs for you, in your living room.

“Larger Than Life” is the album’s spotlight track, and it’s rock-solid. It – and most everything else here – would have fit nicely and seamlessly on The dB’s Falling Off the Sky, their late-period reunion/rally, and for my money the best thing they ever did (and I say that as someone who loves it all). But I want to share my thoughts on another track.

Every now and then – okay, hardly ever, but sometimes – you stumble across a song that really, really, really resonates with you lyrically. The words seem to have been pulled from your own subconscious. Not that you could have written them – no, you could not have – but they’re a window into your psyche. Or at least, they’re from someone who, it would seem, thinks very much as you do. This happened to me when I listened to – and laughed out loud at – “That Kind of Guy.” Is it the best song on the album? I don’t know; there’s a lot of competition for that honor. But WOW. Peter Holsapple may have made the best album of 2025. Certainly one of ’em. Because – to coin a phrase – he’s that kind of guy.

With a Who-like intro, the music is subtly reminiscent of both “Amplifier” and “That Time is Gone,” two of my three favorite Holsapple songs (the other is “Angels,” if you’re wondering.) But “That Kind of Guy” is its own original song, stuffed to the gills with music-nerd inside references; if you’re such a person, you’ll smile broadly at the lyrics. And as Dave Edmunds would counsel, you’ll repeat when necessary.

As much as we may love certain artists – Paul McCartney; the recently departed Brian Wilson; hell, Jeff Lynne – if we’re honest, their best work was created decades ago. Peter Holsapple is a few years older than I am, and he has a massive body of work to his credit. But in 2025 the man is operating at the peak of his creative powers. Even if you’re not a “lyrics person” – and in general, I am not; it takes a Neil Finn or a Phil Lynott or a Roger Waters or a Pete Townshend or a Kirsty MacColl to break through to me on that level – the songs on The Face of 68 are the kind that demand that you stop and listen. The music is great, and the words hit it outta the park.