'', released in
1992 (see
1992 In Music ), was the fourth studio album by US rock band
Faith No More , and the second to feature vocalist
Mike Patton .
'' is a very complex and at times hard to approach album. Although much of the material retains the straightforward pop-rock sound which made them famous ("Midlife Crisis", "A Small Victory", "Everything's Ruined"), elsewhere the band begin to drift into less familiar and more experimental territory. The album often indulges in Patton's penchant for screaming aggressive vocals and deliberately offensive lyrics ("Jizzlobber", "Malpractice", "Be Aggressive").
These unusual moments arguably make the album unique amongst the band's output, at a time when they were beginning to lose out to
Grunge in the commercial stakes. Other notable features of the album include the
White Trash -baiting monologue of "RV" (a truly odd song;
Piano -driven and in
Waltz -time), and the band's version of the theme from ''
Midnight Cowboy ''. Fans still consider this album to be Faith No More at their finest. The later versions of the album included the Commodores cover, 'Easy', which hit it big in the UK, Aus & all of Europe. Still the album did not match the sales figures of that of The Real Thing in the US. But everywhere else it matched or outsold "The Real Thing", specially in the UK, South America & Europe. To this day it is still held in very high regard as one of the most influential records of the 90's, with Kerrang! magazine naming it number one in the 50 most influential albums on the current music scene of 2003.
Surpisingly in the UK, with little promotion the album went straight to #2 in the Chart Albums and ''Faith No More'' had two UK top 10 hits with ''Midlife Crisis'' peaking at #10 and their biggest hit ''Easy'' at #3, making ''Angel Dust'' a chart success.
#"" (music: Gould/Bottum; lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Gould/Patton; lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Bottum/Bordin/Gould/Patton; lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Bottum/Patton/Gould; lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Gould/Bordin/Bottum/Wallace; lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Gould/Bottum/Patton; lyrics: Patton/Gould)
#"" (music & lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Gould/Martin; lyrics: Patton/Bottum)
#"" (music & lyrics: Bottum)
#"" (music: Gould/Bottum/Bordin/Patton; lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Gould/Bottum/Bordin; lyrics: Patton)
#"" (music: Martin; lyrics: Martin/Patton)
#"" (
John Barry )
#"" (
Commodores )
Only the later versions of the album feature a cover of the
Commodores ' 'Easy' as the final track (originally released on the "Songs to Make Love To" EP), which in some parts of the world was Faith No More's most successful single. The original album release only featured 13 tracks.
"Malpractice" contains a sample of
Dmitri Shostakovich 's ''
String Quartet No. 8 '', as performed by the
Kronos Quartet .
Official songwriting credits revealed by Billy Gould in an email, 2004.
