There are groups that are about to rock, and bands that simply, rock. There are those that prepare and primp until every power chord is just so, and there are those that power up instinctively—guilelessly— with a generosity of spirit that doesn’t fade over time.

The Small Faces and the Faces are kings of that latter category, two bands forming the distinct halves of one unlikely continuum—a shared timeline that writer David Fricke rightly describes as one of rock & roll’s most “improbable second-comings.”