On the Shelf 152: Faith No More
When I was in an aspiring garage rock band in high school, we said we would defy genres. The ambition of youth. As the saying goes, we never left the garage, and doubtful would have defied genres, and if we had, we would likely been a mess.
It's a cliche, of course, but Faith No More is about as genre defying as it gets. The Real Thing was released in 1989. Though the band had a minor hit with "We Care a Lot", the band by this time had cranked their amps up, and this was considered a metal album. It earned the band an opening spot for Guns N Roses and Metallica as well as tours with Soundgarden and Voivod. From a genre point of view, it was lumped in with bands like Extreme, Mr Big, even Bon Jovi. Had the album come out five years later, it would have been considered 'alternative', but at the time, it was (pardon the pun) a fish out of water. Still it was loud and long hair, and thus there it was. It was also a smash.
The band followed it with what is probably their most perfect moment, the Angel Dust album. Even at the time, it felt like the band was on another plain. Looking back, few bands have been able to match it. It was also such an unusual piece of work, that it was embraced by the alt-rock audiences that generally wouldn't like such loud bands; though still not fully embraced.
Such genre constraints however cannot take away the band's masterwork and it's the memory of that album that i think much of the expectations of this year's reunion laid rest upon.
The band could not follow it up. I found 95's King for a Day Fool for a Lifetime an utter disappointment, to the point that I all but skipped Album of the Year in 97. Rear view has found critics coming back to praise King, but at the time it was a critical and commercial disappointment during the time the band needed it the most. The band was on the downward path.
There are a few points to make about FNM though, and Mike Patton specifically. Patton has spent the last couple of decades in an array of interesting side projects- Lovage, Fantomas, Peeping Tom, and Tomahawk to name a few. He has been one of the most artistically ambitious artists in the last 20-some years, To my ears, some of these records (looking at Peeping Tom and Tomahak) are as perfect at blending music that is accessible and inaccessible together- the perfect blend of avant garde and pop sensibility.
Indeed, some mention should be made of Mr Bungle- which may be the most avant garde record to have the level of success it has in the last 30 years. You would probably have to go back to the days of Zappa, Beefheart, and Rundgren to find records that pushed aural boundaries to the extent that it did and still sell.
So, high expectations lay on Sol invictus- album #7. Perhaps, it's their role as being one of the truly great loud bands, but I think there were some expectations here that I had not seen on any other band since the last Queens of the Stone Age disc.
The good news is that this album does meet those expectations. Certainly, there is a level of expectation much like they had in 95 and could not meet.
The album stands up as a worthy successor to Angel Dust and the Real Thing. The band still is hard to pin down from a genre pont of view, but they hit the marks of listenability and 'uniqueness'.
I should temper my review by saying that with repeated listens, I don't find my self returning to this album as much as maybe I thought. Time is the true test and as the dust settles, I suspect this album will still make my year end best-of, though where it falls may be closer to the bottom half of the Top 20 and not the upper half. It's mild disappointment, though, as it is a really good record and stamps Faith No More as still one of the planet's most important bands.
Oh, and there's a lot of adult language, like on this song "Motherf*cker", so you probably shouldn't play it around, friends, family, coworkers, etc but I am still going to post it.
Also similarly be careful playing this one at work. As in don't do it (unless you can).
It's a cliche, of course, but Faith No More is about as genre defying as it gets. The Real Thing was released in 1989. Though the band had a minor hit with "We Care a Lot", the band by this time had cranked their amps up, and this was considered a metal album. It earned the band an opening spot for Guns N Roses and Metallica as well as tours with Soundgarden and Voivod. From a genre point of view, it was lumped in with bands like Extreme, Mr Big, even Bon Jovi. Had the album come out five years later, it would have been considered 'alternative', but at the time, it was (pardon the pun) a fish out of water. Still it was loud and long hair, and thus there it was. It was also a smash.
The band followed it with what is probably their most perfect moment, the Angel Dust album. Even at the time, it felt like the band was on another plain. Looking back, few bands have been able to match it. It was also such an unusual piece of work, that it was embraced by the alt-rock audiences that generally wouldn't like such loud bands; though still not fully embraced.
Such genre constraints however cannot take away the band's masterwork and it's the memory of that album that i think much of the expectations of this year's reunion laid rest upon.
The band could not follow it up. I found 95's King for a Day Fool for a Lifetime an utter disappointment, to the point that I all but skipped Album of the Year in 97. Rear view has found critics coming back to praise King, but at the time it was a critical and commercial disappointment during the time the band needed it the most. The band was on the downward path.
There are a few points to make about FNM though, and Mike Patton specifically. Patton has spent the last couple of decades in an array of interesting side projects- Lovage, Fantomas, Peeping Tom, and Tomahawk to name a few. He has been one of the most artistically ambitious artists in the last 20-some years, To my ears, some of these records (looking at Peeping Tom and Tomahak) are as perfect at blending music that is accessible and inaccessible together- the perfect blend of avant garde and pop sensibility.
Indeed, some mention should be made of Mr Bungle- which may be the most avant garde record to have the level of success it has in the last 30 years. You would probably have to go back to the days of Zappa, Beefheart, and Rundgren to find records that pushed aural boundaries to the extent that it did and still sell.
So, high expectations lay on Sol invictus- album #7. Perhaps, it's their role as being one of the truly great loud bands, but I think there were some expectations here that I had not seen on any other band since the last Queens of the Stone Age disc.
The good news is that this album does meet those expectations. Certainly, there is a level of expectation much like they had in 95 and could not meet.
The album stands up as a worthy successor to Angel Dust and the Real Thing. The band still is hard to pin down from a genre pont of view, but they hit the marks of listenability and 'uniqueness'.
I should temper my review by saying that with repeated listens, I don't find my self returning to this album as much as maybe I thought. Time is the true test and as the dust settles, I suspect this album will still make my year end best-of, though where it falls may be closer to the bottom half of the Top 20 and not the upper half. It's mild disappointment, though, as it is a really good record and stamps Faith No More as still one of the planet's most important bands.
Oh, and there's a lot of adult language, like on this song "Motherf*cker", so you probably shouldn't play it around, friends, family, coworkers, etc but I am still going to post it.
Click to viewAlso similarly be careful playing this one at work. As in don't do it (unless you can).