Customer Reviews

This Is It: The Best of Faith No More

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've never really been a fan of "Greatist Hits" or "Best Of" compilation albums. It seems to me that the only purpose they serve is to milk an artist for all they're worth just to make a few bucks. Not only that, but a lot of the time you pass up on some of the artists best work just so you can get an album filled with stuff you've probably heard before. Luckily for us, "This Is It: The Best Of Faith No More" contains most of the best FNM songs, but it is missing some of my favorites like the tremenously underrated "Just A Man" (from "King for a day, Fool for a Lifetime") and "Everything's Ruined".

"This Is It..." begins with four songs from the Chuck Mosley era, including the band's first small hit, "We Care A Lot". Even though Mosley's vocals can be a bit annoying, and the song writing wasn't that great then, the band truely shows off their talent by sometimes single-handedly saving songs that were going nowhere with Mosley on them. The one thing that Mosley had going for him was that he could come up with some catchy choruses for tracks like "Anne's Song" and the sarcastic humor in "We Care A Lot" is hard not to love.

Next we have five songs from the band's second most popular album, "The Real Thing". This includes FNM's biggest hit and the song that most people probably know them for: "Epic". While that song, with it's somewhat annoying and repetitive bass playing, didn't showcase the full amount of talent that the band had, it did give them loads media recognition. The cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" is also a great showcase of how well guitarist Jim Martin can really play.

The band's best and most popular album, "Angeldust" is showcased next with the songs "Midlife Crisis" (Truely, the best song FNM has ever done), "A Small Victory", and "Be Agressive" (A keyboard dominated song with hilarious lyrics).

It should also be noted that, like any compilation album, "This is It..." contains three songs that weren't on any of the band's L.P.s. "As The Worm Turns" was originally a FNM song sung by Chuck Mosley, but in this live version, Patton really takes the song and makes it his own. "The Cowboy Song" has a great chorus but "The Perfect Crime" (originally off of the Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure soundtrack) is somewhat boring, although I do love singing some of the lyrics to it.

Overall, this is a great showing of some of FNM's best songs (the booklet that comes with it is fantastic as well, detailing the band's long history) . However, if you're only interested in getting one FNM compilation album, I'd suggest getting "Who Cares A Lot? The Greatest Hits" instead. It has better songs on it and a 2nd disc featuring 8 rare tracks.

Though imperfect, this disc should appeal to newcomers, or fanatics looking for rare tracks. This is missing many good songs, but as far as the "hits" go, everything is here. Included is their big break "Epic", "We Care Alot", "Midlife Crisis", "Evidence", and "Last Cup Of Sorrow". Plus this has many other great album cuts, and a few hard to find songs. Your other option would be the "Greatest Hits". That's a solid 15 track disc of hits, and a 2nd disc of extras. That would probably be my choice. Or you could always just get "Angel Dust", their best album. But this collection is a lengthy 19 tracks, and is an "Easy" way to see the "Evidence" of how their success came "From Out Of Nowhere" before they started "Falling To Pieces".

To label a compilation as being the definitive "Best of" for a particular group is always a little bit risky. Each fan will have their favourite tracks based on their own personal tastes and experience. And when the band in question is Faith No More, the problem is taken to a whole other level again. Fans of the band will know that FNM were a sonically diverse band that danced around the boundaries of genre, good taste and listenability throughout all their seven full-length albums. Even the casual listener who only knows the band from big hits like Epic and Easy will be surprised by the musical diversity demonstrated in this compilation alone.

But why do we need another FNM compilation? Who Cares A Lot: The Greatest Hits was released not that long after the bands much-lamented demise. Who Cares A Lot was really a singles compilation, which didn't really make an effort to show case the highlights of the Chuck Mosley albums, We Care A Lot and Introduce Yourself or the greatest diversity of the band beyond the scope of the singles they released.

At their best FNM was pure musical alchemy pulling together the diverse tastes of the band members. Just like the image of the man being drawn and quartered in the Midlife Crisis video, each band member was always pulling the band in diverse musical directions, but always under pinning it all is the driving rhythms of Bill Gould, Roddy Bottum and Mike "Puffy" Bordin. Listen to the difference from As the Worm Turn to Anne's Song to Midlife Crisis to Evidence to see the fusion coming together with golden results.

If Devo can call themselves "Pioneers Who Got Scalped", then Faith No More must also be able to claim such a mantle. Patton's vocal delivery and the sonic blend of grinding guitars and pounding synths would definitely pave the way for the mainstream acceptance of NuMetal and Industrial Music in the late 90's.

As seems to be der rigeur for "Best Ofs" these days "This Is It...." promises unreleased tracks that you can't find anywhere else. In this case we have a live, Mike Patton, version of As the Worm Turns, The Cowboy Song from Live at Brixton and The Perfect Crime from the sound track to Bill & Teds Bogus Journey. All three of these tracks are fantastic. As the Worm Turns is a great track from the band's debut album. The Cowboy Song & The Perfect Crime are two lost gems from the Real Thing-era, which have gone unnoticed for far too long.

While not being a definitive guide to FNM it is still a far more comprehensive epitaph to a brilliant career of a seminal 90s band than "Who Cares A Lot". Ideal for both long time fans and casual listeners, I can't recommend this album and the rest of the bands back catalogue more highly.

It runs at an impressive 79 minutes and 40 seconds. Only twenty seconds shy of using the full 80 minutes of space. Well, with 19 songs (just 4 songs less than the double "Who Cares A Lot? The Greatest Hits" double CD) it would need all the space it can allow.
This is a greatest hits package just like the "Who Cares A Lot? The Greatest Hits", and it does have some of the same songs.
The tracks that appear on both CD compilations are:
1. We Care A Lot (but a different version)
2. Introduce Yourself
3. From Out Of Nowhere
4. Epic
5. Falling To Pieces
6. Midlife Crisis
7. A Small victory
8. Easy
9. Digging The Grave
10. Evidence
11. Last Cup Of Sorrow
12. Ashes To Ashes

So that leaves seven other songs that is not on the "WCAL? TGH" double CD. They are:
1. Arabian Disco
2. Anne's Song
3. War Pigs
4. The Cowboy Song
5. As The Worm Turns (Live 1990)
6. Be Agressive
7. The Perfect Crime

The songs that were on the "WCAL? TGH" CD are:
1. Gentle Art Of Making Enemies
2. I Started A Joke
3. Stripsearch
4. World Is Yours
5. Hippie Jam Song
6. Instrumental
7. I Won't Forget You
8. Introduce Yourself (4-track demo)
9. Highway Star
10. Theme From Midnight Cowboy
11. This Guy's In Love With You
(depending on which version of the CD you own.

The good things on this CD ("This Is It..") is 'The Perfect Crime' previously available only on the Bill & Ted Bogus Journey Soundtrack CD, and 'Be Aggressive' from the "Angel Dust" CD, which is my personal favorite track off of that CD.

These are contract fulfillment related releases obviously, as I am not sure that this is what Faith No More fans would ask for, (a consecutive release Greatest package only within a couple of years), a live CD, or even a live DVD would have been better.

It has a very cool booklet and funny pictures throughout the CD artwork. The booklet contains a Faith No More biography, and a pretty good one at that.

What I did not like about this CD is the inclusion of 4 songs with previous frontman Chuck Mosley (pre-Real Thing). It's not that he is a bad singer or even entertaining because he is, but Mike Patton is where the magic begins, and verythiong the man touches is filled with the same magic.

I guess I would recommend this CD, although I hate to recommend any rehashed compilation. I would rather point someone toward "Who Cares A Lot? The Greatest Hits" but this has some important songs on here as well, and is not a bad place for a beginner to start learning about Faith No More.

This album is definintly a better greatest hits compilation than who cares a lot, for the simple reason it includes the cowboy song and anne's song, two of their best songs. but still, wheres everythings ruined? maybe they're leaving it out for the next best of. chuck moseley is the heart of faith no more aswell as mike patton, whoever said he wasnt. and its great theres a few more tracks with him here. fantastic. five stars, cos well, it is faith no more. oh and too all the numetal kids who deny faith no mores influence, listen to a perfect crime. then compare with drowning pools bodies. complete rip off if you ask me. keep the faith, heheh

I have been a Hardcore fan of Faith no more for about 11 years now and I've never heard "The Cowboy Song" before so I got this and it was worth the money just for that song alone, Definetly one of the best FNM songs I've ever heard. and the live version of "As the worm turns" with Mike Patton on vocals is great, its good that they included songs off of "We care a lot" as well (Arabian disco), and I'm glad they included "Annes song" because that is one of my favs from the Chuck Mosley era, and its got "Perfect crime" which is a great song. other than that its pretty standard greatest hits album, I wouldn't say that its better than "Who cares a lot" greatest hits, they both have their pluses.
The reason I give this one only 4 stars is because they should have included "Ricochet" and "Stripsearch". than it would have been perfect. but like I said, its worth it for "The Cowboy song" alone.

A band with as many interested fans as Faith No More is not served well by a compilation of tracks that can easily be found on other discs that generally have other material around them that is at least equal in quality. What Faith No More fans deserve is a compilation that brings all those hard-to-get B-sides in the one place. You know the ones I am talking about. The rerecorded version of As The Worm Turns, Das Schutzenfest, a cover of Let's Lynch The Landlord, and so forth. Those are the tracks that I would pay to own in compilation form. This is at least the third time I have seen Liberation barf out a compilation of tracks I mostly already have on other compact discs, while my requests for easier access to the hard-to-find tracks that people trade on Kazaa are still going begging. My recommendation to anyone new to this band is to avoid these compilations and buy the albums. Your long-term satisfaction will be greater.

....To the world of Faith No More. This is an excellent source of introduction to the wacky metal-funk band. Spanning from some of the earliest hits, through the hey-day and into the bands final years, you get a decent amount of everything on this one disc collection. (There is also a very impressive 2 disc set out there too, called We Care Alot... if you want a heavier mix, but for newbies this is a good start... I always think of hits packages as a gateway to obtaining proper albums from the band- which is what you SHOULD do- thus making smaller hits packs a better bet, usually)
Also- for the casual fan, this album pretty much has everything you could need. FTM wasn't really a big radio band ever (the only song I've ever heard on the radio ever has been EPIC (yes, that is the "you want it all-but you can't have it" song) .. the term "hits" here must refer to band and fan favorites, and they really mixed them together well.)
Epic is a great song but hardly demonstates the whole structure of this band. Nowadays its almost a novelty song on the radio... these guys had so many great tunes... even some cool covers... check out the intensity of WAR PIGS, or the breezy feel of EASY... two opposite ends of the spectrum right there.
Check out the mysterious EVIDENCE or the shout along classic WE CARE ALOT! theres something for everyone, and a few things in between.
These cats were a very innovative band, who had a leg up on the nineties rock scene as far back as the mid eighties. The Real Thing was there smash album in '89, and other stuff has basically been adored by fans... I think it's time you introduce yourself to some brilliant stuff, if you ain't never done it before.

This 19 track CD is full of non-stop hits, b-sides, live recordings, and obscure moments by the group who paved the way for bands like, Rage Against The Machine, Korn, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park, "Faith No More." Obviousley their 1990 breakthrough hit, Epic, is featured, along with 1987's
"We Care A Lot", 1997's "Last Cup of Sorrow", and my favorite "Evidence", from their 1995 album, "King For A Day."
Mike Patton provides vocals for most of the 20 or so songs, and does a very good job. FNM's first vocalist, Chuck Mosley, appears on the first 4 tracks. These tracks are a bit different from Faith No More's 1990's output, but are unique and special in their own right. Some rarities compiled here include
"As the Worm Turns (live, 1990)", "The Cowboy Song (1989 Outtake)", "The Perfect Crime (1991, very rare, out of print)", and "Arabian Disco (1985)", from the long deleted first Faith No More album. This collection serves as a great introduction to this unique rock act, and compiles every one of their hits from 1985 to 1997, as well as unreleased material unique to this CD.

This Is It: The Best of Faith No More (2003.) A compliation from Faith No More.

Faith No More. When you think of that band name, you think of funk rock/metal. And while also being experimental when lunatic (in a good way of course) multi band frontman Mike Patton came on board after underrated previous singer Chuck Mosley left, that's what they were. Faith No More have released many awesome songs and a few albums in the late 80s-early 90s, and a few compliations have been made consisting of the band's singles and more, as well as backlashing on MTV. Does This Is It do the band any justice? Find out of course.

OVERVIEW:

WE CARE A LOT (1985)
TRACKS PRESENT: Arabian Disco, We Care a Lot, As the Worm Turns (Live)
COMMENTS: It's nice to see they gave a nice emphasis on the vastly underrated Mosley era, so the choices on this album couldn't have been any better. I know the live version of As the Worm Turns is with Patton, but since I have no place else to put it since it was a Mosley original, here it is.

INTRODUCE YOURSELF (1987)
TRACKS PRESENT: We Care a Lot, Anne's Song, Introduce Yourself
COMMENTS: Well maybe I didn't have to put We Care a Lot, but it was also on this album since it was rerecorded. Their major label debut couldn't have a better emphasis either since the Mosley era was so underrated.

THE REAL THING (1989)
TRACKS PRESENT: Epic, From Out of Nowhere, Falling to Pieces, War Pigs
COMMENTS: Here it is. The album that started it all with Patton and becoming legends. This has a good emphasis too since it has the 3 big hits and their excellent cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs (equally as good as the original). It would've also been nice to see Zombie Eaters, Surprise! You're Dead!, and the title track too, but I barely have any complaints.

LIVE AT BRIXTON ACADEMY (1990)
TRACK PRESENT: The Cowboy Song
COMMENTS: Some of the live versions of songs from The Real Thing that weren't on here could've gone here but that's cool. The Cowboy Song is a studio track, I know, but this is the only album it's on.

ANGEL DUST (1992)
TRACKS PRESENT: Be Aggressive, Midlife Crisis, A Small Victory
COMMENTS: Arguably Faith No More's most popular album. The song choices here couldn't be any better since it contains the 2 big hits and the not as popular but still is cheerleader like anthem Be Aggressive. Caffeine and RV would've also been good additions, but these selections are just fine.

SONGS TO MAKE LOVE TO (1993)
TRACK PRESENT: Easy
COMMENTS: Now this is technically the only song on this remix of it EP/single. It was normal to put Easy here, since it was their only Billboard 100 hit besides Epic and Falling to Pieces, and it's a great cover of the Commadores classic. It was also a bonus track on the Angel Dust rerelease.

KING FOR A DAY, FOOL FOR A LIFETIME (1995)
TRACKS PRESENT: Evidence, Digging the Grave
COMMENTS: This is my favorite Faith No More album, and I was disappointed that it didn't get at least a bit more emphasis. Granted, these are 2 of the best songs and big hits from the album, but why didn't they also include other masterpieces like Ricochet, Take This Bottle, The Last to Know or Just a Man as well? The album is every bit as great as its 2 preceeders, and why it didn't get at least 3 songs is beyond me. Oh well, there is one more song to be found on their other compliation Who Cares a Lot?, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR (1997)
TRACKS PRESENT: Last Cup of Sorrow, Ashes to Ashes
COMMENTS: AotY was the band's most underrated album, and sadly their last. And it sure was the album of the year. It didn't get the best emphasis either, but the 2 big hits are here, so that's a good thing. Stripsearch (also on Who Cares a Lot?) and Collision would've made good additions too.

NEW/UNRELEASED/BONUS SONG - The Perfect Crime
COMMENTS: This song was an outtake from The Real Thing, and I must say it's great and I'm glad it has a place to be on a CD.

OVERALL: This was overall a very good compliation from one of the best late 80s-90s bands that nearly fills up the 80 minute time limit. A few more songs could've worked, but I'm not complaning now, am I? Another great thing about it is that the songs are in approximate order! (Well, The Perfect Crime could've been after The Cowboy Song, but since it wasn't released til this nah.) If you're a casual fan looking for the big hits and some underrated greatness, start here. Or if you want to start with an album, go with The Real Thing or Angel Dust, then get everything else after.

EDITION NOTES:

This compliation was released 2 1/2 years ago and is still readily avalible in local retailer stores. So you'll have no trouble finding it.