Faith No More - Album Of The Year
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Editor's Choice...
And this time "Faith No More's" sixth album "Album Of The Year" was released on June 3, 1997
You are probably familiar with the cliché: "It does not take much to move you" so we will take it and make avant-garde use of it here and now. We will momentarily and deliberately ignore the whole album which is excellent and an unequivocally provides the incredible thrill that this band causes us and we will refer to one song, only one song!
For us, a masterpiece... maybe not a crazy symphony, not extravagant riffs, or complicated chords, maybe not varied and complex dynamics but there is one... just one small sentence, one sentence that makes us fall to pieces and a tear down some drops in the corner of our eye:
“Smiling with the mouth of the ocean, And I'll wave to you with the arms of the mountain”
Just click on either links Spotify, Apple Music, and choose the song "Ashes To Ashes", or just click below...
Jon Hudson caresses the guitar strings softly with Mike singing the first verse in a deep voice and then with a big roar the chorus enters and just tears you to pieces. Imagine yourself floating in the air over the ocean with a huge smile, with your hands spread to a side where the sea and you are circling a huge green and gray mountain range.
You probably think we are hallucinatory but that's what's amazing about music, we feel, experience, and drift where we want and we don't care what it looks like or what it means, now it's our world and we are present in it !! It can end here but since we must provide more let's have a few details (because we are addicted to this band).
Writing the album was far from easy. The members were deeply involved in their own projects and rarely in the same place at the same time. In fact, by this point "Faith No More" already felt like a band slowly drifting apart. Mike Patton was living in Italy, Roddy Bottum was busy with "Imperial Teen", Mike Bordin was playing with "Black Sabbath", and Billy Gould found himself trying to piece everything together.
Much of the album was created remotely and recorded during a brief period when all five members managed to gather in San Francisco. Looking back, several members admitted they weren't even sure the album would be completed, which makes the final result all the more impressive. The song we referred to above is a good example, it is one of the first songs written for the album. The four band members wrote the music and sent it to Mike who was in Italy at the time. Mike immediately wrote the lyrics and sent them back to the other friends. Gould said it was one of those songs that has an instant click and the pieces are aligned together like magic.
(Photo: allmusic.com)
And don't think this album only has one great moment. Far from it. It's packed with brilliant and emotional gems. "Stripsearch" feels like it could have been written during Patton's earliest days with the band and remains one of the most beautiful songs in their later catalog. "Last Cup Of Sorrow" is powerful and unforgettable, "Helpless" showcases the band's adventurous side, and "Mouth To Mouth" brings an entirely different flavor, partly inspired by musical influences Billy Gould absorbed during a trip to Albania.
Perhaps because of everything happening behind the scenes, "Album Of The Year" carries a strange sense of farewell. Not an official goodbye, but the feeling of a band that still knows the magic is there, yet isn't quite sure where the road leads next. Looking back today, it's difficult not to hear that uncertainty woven into the music.
The album received harsh criticism from some reviewers upon release and was the last album the band released until the seventh album, "Sol Invictus" which came out 18 years later. We still love this record. For us, it remains an essential part of the extraordinary catalog of one of the most original, fearless, and emotionally powerful bands rock music has ever produced.
Comments