Customer Reviews

Album of the Year

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A return to form for the uniquely talented Faith No More which turned out to be their last record before breaking up. Although not reaching the dizzy heights of 1992?s ?Angel Dust?, there are a fair share of classic Faith No More tracks on offer. Opener ?Collision? sets the mood for the album with its unpredictable and jerking metal. Second track ?Strip Search? goes into a completely different direction to confuse the listener even more with its space-age landscape. The album?s greatest strength is that the songs are so diverse and compelling you never know what to expect, something that many US alternative bands should do more often. ?Last Cup Of Sorrow? continues this trend with what sounds like a cowbell as it?s main hook line. At times the album can be frustrating, witness ?Home Sick Home? which goes nowhere and ?She Love?s Me Not? sticking out like a sore thumb. The production sounds flat and uninspiring at times but the quality of the songs shine through, resulting in the most consistent and enjoyable album Faith No More have released in years. Faith No More still prove to be one of the most influential and genius bands of the last 10 years.

In My Eyes, ever since Patton Joined Faith no More, they can do no wrong. While this being my least favorite album by them, it is the LEAST BEST, meaning that it is all amazing, but it isn't as good as angel dust or The Real Thing.

This being the Last Faith No More album really comes with alot of emotional baggage. The singing is amazing and ballads fill this album to the brinks. Get this and you'll understand WHY everyone likes faith no more. Pick up Mr Bungle while you're at it.

8 years after, looking at this album and the career of Faith No More in general still causes me to get a little choked up. I was devastated at that press conference when Billy announced they were splitting. Faith No More was easily one of the top 2 or 3 best bands of the 90's, and it was sad to see them go. Enough weeping, however, let's get into the review.

This album as a whole has a very plodding, exhausted feel to it. One can ascertain the general feeling that these guys are sick of each other (Mike Patton didn't even rehearse with the band, instead turning in his vocal tracks by mail while working on Mr. Bungle's spectacular 1999 release California) and that they know this is the last straw. The songs still stand up on their own, for the most part, and it is still light years more coherent and cohesive than the lackluster 1994 release King For A Day, Fool For a Lifetime. The whole album lends a feeling of distance, of space, a stunning shift from their previous walls-of-sound performances Angel Dust and The Real Thing. Jon Hudson's guitar work is mediocre, yet there are moments (Ashes to Ashes being the most prominent) where his simplistic efforts really enhance, rather than detract, from the material. For a hardcore FNM fan, this is nowhere near their finest material, but for the rest of the industry, it stands head and shoulders above what was available at the time, and in fact still stands taller than most of the material released in the 8 years following.

The album begins with a bone-jarring syncopated semi-trash number, Collision. While fully loaded with raw power, the overall emotive value of this piece wears off quickly once the initial headbanging is over. No notable lyric here, it's a very sparse hint at a book and movie done a short time before. Stripsearch is a powerful bounceback, both lyrically and musically. Flowing, ethereal textures and incredibly emotive vocal passages, with lines such as "In these days - I'm breathing stone - crying stone - I'll win this race - I'll leave alone - arrive alone" place this piece among the best this band has ever produced. The radio-ready "Last Cup of Sorrow" is a flop. Dead, lifeless, unimaginative, boring - frankly I was shocked such a great band could produce such a piece of crap, and then have the gall to release it as a single over some of the real gems on this record. Chalk that one up to the industry pushing a band to re-write its big hit over and over again, as if forcing the same sound down people's throats repeatedly will make them love you. "Naked in Front of the Computer" brings back the dark humour that has been such a beloved component of this band's sound for years. Jon's opening riff is lackluster, but the song ignores it and moves on into a frantic, aggressive underpinning for some very tasty lyrical gems such as "In how many ways - and words - can you say nothing - millions of ways - and words - to say nothing" - all a sarcastic stab at the internet revolution and its evolving into what is essentially a forum for dolts such as myself to foam at the mouth to whoever will listen. "Helpless" is a spectacular quasi-ballad piece with dreamy synth passages, although again weighed down by Hudson's lack of imagination and skill. Quips like "For every wish, I wonder why - Why all I want is something beautiful - A place to rest" toss the listener rather casually into serious depression, while the eerie whistling and other sound effects hint that the band is laughing at your pain all along. "Mouth to Mouth" brings more tongue-in-cheek silliness and a brilliant hook "I can dress up the dead man - but I can't bring him back to life." Too bad they didn't drop this surefire hit on the general public. "Ashes to Ashes" is definitely another T-10 alltime FNM piece. Patton's soaring vocals interplay beautifully with Roddy's boards, and Hudson's 14 note guitar solo actually makes for a perfect interlude between segments. The hook is stellar - "Smiling with the mouth of the ocean - and I'll wave to you with the arms of the mountain - I'll see you" and passionate, one of the few genuinely emotional pieces on the album. "She Loves Me Not" is a forgettable effort at a show-tune, with Roddy masturbating on a his grand piano patch and Mike desperately trying to bail the song out with some mindbending vocal texturing. "Got That Feeling" is an ambitious compound time-signature nu-metal piece, which is great if you're a nu-metal band, but rather unfortunate if you're the band who wrote one song that started the whole bloody genre. "Paths Of Glory" is powerful, grandiose piece with a surprisingly strong hook riff from Hudson and some stunning lyric to support another soaring, intense vocal performance from Patton, with shreds like "Is this the only path of glory - If so then I won't go alone - Follow the trail" grabbing the listener by the throat and demanding attention. "Home Sick Home" is a grand little dark-flavored swing piece that could be likened to a Charles Manson comedy tour. Ponder that visual for a minute. "Pristina" is a beautifully sparse final movement for the album, evoking precisely what I have to believe the band intended - this is it, folks, it's over, we're done. "In every dark land - in every flower bed - in every marraige bed - I'll be with you - I'm watching you" - what's left to be said?

Overall, a fine coda to a spectacular career for this band. It's completely unfair, really, to hold it up to the standard of Angel Dust - no band in the history of heavy rock has ever managed to eclipse their masterwork ex post facto, why should we expect FNM to have been any different? Still, it stands up on its own and demands to be accounted for in the annals of alt-rock history.

The title sounds a bit cocky, but after 1 listen, you'll believe this aptly titled CD. A burst of sound you'll wish would go on forever, never a yawn. It'll be over before you know it. Awesome!

FNM's final album is pretty damn good. On the previous albums, they show off all the different styles of music they can play. This time, they focus a little more writing good songs. "Mouth to Mouth" has a funny circus music theme, "Ashes to Ashes" is classy heavy metal, there are two "thrash" songs (one seems to be about a malfuctioning computer), and more.

It's too bad the band quit when they were so good. The only FNM album better than this one is ANGEL DUST.

Faith No More was a band, in my opinion, that got consistently better with every album. It's a shame that their best album was also their last. It's not everyday that a modern album automatically becomes one of my all time favorites but Album Of The Year is just that.

Faith No More...a phrase that has become a by-word for irreverent excellence. But this only came about because of the brilliance of the albums that came before this. So is Album Of The Year a worthy addition to the phenomenal canon of Faith No More? The answer is an emphatic 'yes'. Starting off with the sickly twisted 'Collision', which, judging by the lyrics, appears to have been written as a tribute to the film 'Crash', AOTY never disappoints. The band appear to have mellowed out somewhat since KFAD (there are no equivalents of 'Cuckoo for Caca' here), but that is no bad thing at all, as it allows them to explore new areas. 'Stripsearch' and 'Last cup of Sorrow' are fine examples of the new FNM. But fret not, mosh freaks, the psycho vibe is brought to us in the form of 'Naked in front of the computer', a tale of a battle between a computer and its owner. And 'Got that feeling' nicely captures the mosh mood as well. The tone of the record is definitely more low-key than on previous albums, and this vibe is best captured on the twin peaks of genius known as 'Ashes to Ashes', and my personal favourite 'Paths of glory'. Words can't really describe how good these songs are. No one seems to agree with me on 'Paths', so it must be that I have found a song that I can call mine. And for this, I worship Faith No More. Note must be made of the video for 'last cup..', which is an inspired four minute remake of Hitchcocks classic 'vertigo', featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh. The keyboards are more prevalent than ever on any FNM album, and on 'Paths' and 'ashes' they totally build the atmosphere, as well as on 'last cup' and 'stripsearch'. One of the most touching moments of the whole album is found in the song 'Helpless', which I assume is a song relating to depression. Mike:'I even tried to get arrested today/But everyone looked the other way'. I could sit here and harp on for hours about how great the rest of the songs are, but I won't. That would be telling. So go and get it.

Just as the band had numerous problems replacing Jim Martin on the axe, new member Jon Hudson came in to fill the void wonderfuly.

Put forth the result AOTY, comes across like a great album of a band reborn and set to take charge. They went on tour, I missed it, heard great reviews from the internet of the shows, they went to Lisbon, and then... it (FNM) ended. It was their last album.

Hence AOTY is the last remenants of Faith No More that we have left. From the crushing opening of Collision, to the eeeeerie atmospheric-ness of Stripsearch, each song builds on and on to the next one either tripping out into classic FNM weirdness (Mouth To Mouth, Naked In Front of the Computer) to ultimate camp (Home Sick Home, She Loves me Not).. to ending in one of the most beautiful closers of any album I have ever heard "Pristina", not so much a song as it is one of the longest most haunting outro's ones ears will experience. listening to it gives you the sensation that the album never ends.

The album does end, but you can get this masterpiece and listen to it again, I just wish the band could get back together myself, but there will always be their albums.

Mark, what the hell are you talking about? You call yourself a FNM fan?

Faith No More was probably the most ambitious, and, without doubt, THE most innovative, group of it's time. Mike Patton is undeniably the most talented rock vocalist, and as musicians in general they were majestic indeed. While The Real Thing featured poppy and fresh funk-based hard rock, reminding me of Hawaiji or somesuch place, Angel Dust being THE one ( reminding me of North Pole etc.) and King For A Day... showing off the multitalented and versatile group of professionals (London / Chicago), this piece of music seems somehow a little serious. Sure, it is a very, very good piece of music, offering better production compared to previous album. There are some real classics here, such as Helpless, Collision, Last Cup Of Sorrow and Ashes To Ashes. But somehow there are signs from the forthcoming breakup, music being serious. Even Mike Patton, the nuttball sounds little unenthusiastic here and there. Still, a very, very high quality music release (most of the time, at least). Try it, YOU'll love it!