FAITH NO MORE – I’M
EASY/BE AGGRESSIVE (SLASH)
This single arrived at
a confused point in proceedings. January
1993 turned out to be one of the more eventful months of my life. After enjoying a grunge related Christmas
when so many gifts were alt rock related stepping into the new year I found
myself on work experience from school at Dixon Electronics in Clacton-on-Sea . This
was not rock, this was not what I was destined to do with my life. This was not what my walkman was
soundtracking.
As confusion rained
suddenly one of my favourite bands released a weird cover version that saw it
shifting units and finding success in the charts. I knew the song “(I’m) Easy” by Lionel Richie
and wasn’t exactly a fan but by fuck did Faith No More change that opinion. Then again this was never a band shy of doing
a cover version and making it their own.
Still, we were loyal to the brand and happy to indulge. It is interesting to note how the artwork
refers to the song as “I’m Easy” and being written by “Lionel Ritchie” offering
a distinct air of something being quickly cobbled together.
More than anything
else this track always demonstrated the diversity and musical prowess of the
act. It was a track that Mike Patton
easily stretched his voice around as Roddy Bottum carried the music with his
keyboard while you imagined Jim Martin chomping at the bit to attack the guitar
solo towards the end. With Martin now on
his way out of the band you can’t help but wonder whether the Patton address of
“ewww” that leads to the solo is directed at Big Jim.
To me it still sounds
weird. It is polished and quite frankly
I find it ridiculous how it is stuck on the end of Angel Dust. Basically it’s a decent but I really need to
be in the mood for it and am most likely to switch off the album after “Midnight
Cowboy”.
Keeping with the
band’s usual direction and seemingly a gesture to keep the faithful happy, the
second a-side is the playful “Be Aggressive”, a song about being vocal during
sex (thus the declaration in rant “I swallow, I swallow”) while containing a
weird chorus sample of kids spelling out the song title in a seedy cheerleader
cum cheesy Sesame Street style. Its all
very sport fucking and unsurprisingly aggressive. Up until that point it is a healthy pummel of
a song but that element just kills. This
would not have been my immediate choice for a single.
Moving on the b-sides
are live recordings of “A
Small Victory” and “We Care A Lot” from Munich the 9th November
1992 , the first of
which is playful and heavy while the second is somewhat subject to a
re-model. It ain’t Patton’s song, he
don’t care what it sounds like as he briefly bastardises it with a call to
“Jump Around”.
The gentle art of
making an audience.
Thesaurus moment:
tender.
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