After the longest hiatus since I
started this project, I’m back! I had a good excuse for being absent, however –
I went on a holiday to Italy with Sheila and our two moms.
Italy is pretty awesome. Great
art, great food and cool people, although there is a bit too much petty theft
in the piazzas and train stations. If you go, stay alert and you’ll be fine.
The trip fulfilled a lifelong
dream of mine to see the land of my ancestors (at least half of them). I rode a
gondola in Venice, saw the David in Florence, drank wine with the locals in
Monterosso, and marveled at the grandeur of the Coliseum in Rome.
Since this isn’t a travel blog I
won’t go on about it too much (I didn’t get to take in any music) but I’ll
leave a gratuitous Italy picture at the end of my next few posts for those
interested.
Now – on to music!
Disc 671 is…. The Real Thing
Year of Release: 1989
What’s up with the Cover? Um…A burning bottle
cap? A burning frying pan? Something is definitely burning – likely the money
Faith No More paid some artist to supply this cover.
How I Came To Know It: My friend Curt was a big fan of this record when it
came out, and when everyone else was watching fish flop around and pianos
explode on the video for the one single (“Epic”),
Curt introduced me to the whole record (on tape, of course – this was 1989). I
always liked it, but never decided to buy it until the last five years or so.
How It Stacks Up: Faith No More has six studio albums, but like many
people, “The Real Thing” is the only one I have, so I can’t stack it up.
While
researching how many albums they had, however, I learned they have seven
compilation/greatest hits albums. Yes, they have more compilation albums than
actual albums. I’m not sure if this is hubris or just record label conflicts
but note to bands – don’t do it. I have none of these compilations and am
resolved to never have one.
Rating: 3 stars
“The Real Thing” is a hard album
to wrap your head around. It is firmly in the rock genre, but within that large
description it ranges around. The record features elements of hard rock, heavy
metal, power metal, prog rock, pop melodies and even a punchy rock/rap
crossover that later Nu-Metal bands would try (and spectacularly fail) to
replicate.
“The Real Thing” came out at the
height of the grunge movement, and it shares some of grunge’s melodic ‘wave of
sound’ qualities, most notably on the powerful opening track “From Out of Nowhere”. For all that, this
is not grunge record, being closer to metal with its driving guitar riffs and
anthemic power chords. It could easily have been just another quality metal
record, but it is clear that Faith No More aspires to push their musical
limits.
The big hit is “Epic” a song that twenty-five years
later is better remembered than the band itself. “Epic” is instantly recognizable, with its chugging guitar riff and
strange transitions that never seem to slip into the usual rock pattern of
verse-chorus-verse-chorus. The closest it comes to a chorus is the slow-build chant
of “you want it all/but you can’t have it”
balanced off by a rap-like shout of “It’s
it – what is it?” The song ends with some creepy classical piano that would
make Alice Cooper proud. In a way “Epic”
sums up the whole album; an amalgam of different sounds that shouldn’t work
together, yet do.
On “Falling to Pieces” the band uses song constructions better suited
to the Happy Mondays or Blur, with a rock edge, and then throw in a funk bass
line because – why not. “Surprise! You’re
Dead” is straight metal thrash and “Zombie
Eaters” is progressive rock. The instrumental “Woodpecker From Mars” even has elements of Celtic folk in it, and “Edge of the World” feels in places like
a show tune.
The band can’t sit still, and
while it makes it hard to hone in on their sound, it also holds your attention
while you search it out.
They do a fine cover of Black
Sabbath’s “War Pigs” that doesn’t do
a lot of new things with the song, but still delivers it with a fresh energy
that elevates it above a simple vanity project. Faith No More’s “War Pigs” was a bit of a hit among my
friends when it came out, and while there is only one Black Sabbath, it is a
worthy cover.
Musically the band is very tight,
successfully playing songs that are complicated and need a lot of precision to
avoid falling into mud. Lead singer Mike Patton has a high pitched whine that
is very distinctive and works with what the band is doing, even though in more
conventional music, I might find his voice annoying.
The album only has 11 tracks, but
at 55 minutes still feels a bit long by the end. Given their obvious love for
early seventies hard rock, I wish they’d emulated those artists and done an 8
song, 35 minute record instead. Don’t sacrifice the long-developing progginess
of the songs, but just put a couple fewer on.
While all of the experimentation
on “The Real Thing” might have cost Faith No More some easy record sales in
either the grunge or metal genres, I’m much happier joining them on their
journey of discovery.
Gratuitous Italy Picture:
Venice by moonlight. The bridge to the left is the famous Rialto and the pole to the right is a gondola station - damned right I rode in one!
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