.....But sadly not of their career.
This is probably the weakest of the Faith No More albums which feature patton on vocals. This does not,however, make it a bad record. Topping their 1992 'Angel Dust' opus was never going to be easy, and they seemed to regress slightly with 1994's 'King for a Day..', which had many great tracks but lacked the consistency and effortless experimentation that 'Angel Dust' was absolutely crammed full with. 'Album of the Year' is a fine album, but flawed, with the inter band tension very evident in places, seemingly a fixture of bands on the verge of breakup. The strongest thing about this record is the presence of some wonderful singles: 'Ashes to Ashes'is the most commercially viable and melodic ('Easy' notwithstanding) tune since the days of 'The Real Thing'. Both 'Last cup of sorrow' and 'Stripsearch' are examples of that smooth and harmonious keyboard edged rock that only FNM can pull off so well. 'Stripsearch' I might add, is like nothing the band have ever attempted before: haunting and eerie, light and dark, gentle and fiery. The album is also pleasingly diverse and in places plain odd: 'Collision' and 'Naked in front of the computer' are two of the heaviest and fastest numbers the band produced, while 'Mouth to Mouth' and 'Got that feeling' display Patton's at times bizzare influence on the bands sound. 'Pristina' is my standout track: it seems to manage to be overpoweringly dark and uplifting at the same time.
Theres enough great music on here to merit 4 stars easily, but I still feel Faith No More were capable of so much more, even in the twilight stages of their career. Fans will of course want to pick this up instantly, but newcomers are recommended to go via 'The Real Thing' and then 'Angel Dust' instead.
Faith No More's Best Work
4 and 1/2 stars....I knew these guys could do it! When I first heard 'Epic' from their 1989 album "The Real Thing", I knew this band was going to be big. But their following release "Angel Dust" proved a bit lacking for me. I liked some of it, but felt that the band was far from realizing their potential.
With "Album of the Year" FNM have released a solid hard rock disc loaded with great hooks, melancholy minors, and thick bombast. "Head-On Collision", "Last Cup of Sorrow", "Stripsearch", "Ashes to Ashes" (the standout on the album), and "Pristina" (a beauty!) are top notch. They make up for one or two other tracks that are good but not great.
By the time this disc was released, many people (including myself) had written off FNM as early 90's has-beens. That is unfortunate because this disc is far superior to the garbage being released by so many other bands these days....
A sad goodbye to one of the greatest bands of all time
Yes, this album is a little bit sadder. In fact, it is true that it sounds like if they didn't want to release this record but I'll tell you, it's an AMAZING one! You may disagree with me but few bands have a brilliant career like FNM. Name one band which hasn't at least one bad album. Faith No More is the exception to the rule. All of their work is outstanding and above average. But of course you already knew that. There are some people who are saying that Album of The Year is worse than Angel Dust. In my oppinion, I don't think it's true. Both offer different conceptions of music and they complement each other with some diversity. While Angel Dust is more straight-forward with some new-metal (sorry for the insight) roots and depressive lyrics, Album of The Year offers so much more complexity and defines better the FNM style like no other CD before this one.
My favorite songs are "Collision" (Powerful!), Naked In Front of The Computer" (Agressive and crazy at times!), "Helpless" (an acoustic quiet song that turns into beautiful grunge-like song), "Mouth To Mouth" (start weird and gets heavy!), "She loves Me Not" (this song is funny and extremely well played!). In my oppinion, the least good of the songs is Pristina, which is a big filler with a chorus. Nevermind. If you're a FNM fan or a new listener you may wanna buy this CD with no fear.
Funny Title, But Not Very Adequate
Despite some apealling moments that show this bands` uniqueness and stenght ("Stripsearch", "Mouth to Mouth", "Last Cup of Sorrow", "Ashes to Ashes"), "Album of the Year" is nothing special for the most part. The majority of the songs aren`t bad, yet they never seem to rise above average, merely listenable material either. Overall, this record lacks personality and staying power, presenting bland and not very intense rock tracks. Faith No More can do better and quirkier music than this middle-of-the-road effort without distinction or impact.
Not memorable enough.
Good way to Go out
What makes this album so cool is the mood of it, from the cover of the album to the feel of the songs to even the way the band dressed for the tour. Its real somber, and its like you could tell that THIS was IT, if you look at "Introduce yourself" and "The Real thing" it was upbeat and full of life, like the begining of something and "Album of the Year" is like the exact opposite. but its a great album, I knew I would like it as soon as I heard "Collision", and "Stripsearch" is one of my Favorite FNM songs of all time, among the other great tracks are "Last cup of Sorrow", "Helpless" which is probably my favorite on the CD, the Whistling solo is great. "Mouth to Mouth", "Ashes to Ashes", "She loves me not", "Paths of Glory" and "Pristina", I think that song is such a good song to end the legacy of FNM, it took a while to grow on me at first, but its a great album ender,
The others like "Naked in front of the Computer" is a very cool song, just not one of the strong ones, as well as "Got that feeling", both songs hold their own and do not take away from the album at all. But "Home sick Home" is probably my least favorite FNM song, I've tried to like it, but I just can't, that is the only bad song though.
Jon Hudson is a great guitar player, and songwriter.
Like I said, this is a Great album, but you have to understand it, theres a whole mood here that a lot of people don't get.
Its all right there too. This is the END, and thats the feeling. I like it, if you like FNM, then you will probably like it too. Faith no more were definetly one of the most Underrated, Underappreciated, Overlooked bands.
