FAITH NO MORE – KING
FOR A DAY… FOOL FOR A LIFETIME (SLASH)
This is the fifth
Faith No More studio record and the first without Jim Martin on guitar. In his place came Trey Spruance from Mr
Bungle and the results suggest that it was not a natural fit. Indeed come time to tour the album he was
gone being replaced by Dean Menta, a roadie.
A very good roadie but still a roadie.
Martin was always a very popular and large part of the group; indeed he
was the non-bogus member of the band chosen to appear in Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey to
represent “The Faith No More Spiritual And Theological Centre”. He was the heavy metal element of the band in
more than just chops. And now gone,
things were no longer quite so heavy.
King For A Day…Fool
For A Lifetime is not a bad album, its just a disjointed one. Perhaps the band decided to just take one for
the team because Angel
Dust was plainly their masterpiece, their career defining album that was
almost impossible to follow. That said
it is not as good as The
Real Thing either.
I never actually
bought or owned this album. I bought all
the singles even when I didn’t necessarily think they were very good but little
else appealed about the band anymore. In
fact in a classic move of familiarity breeds contempt, the truth was that one
of my best friends loving the band kind of stunk them up for me.
The album came out in
March 1995. At that time I was working
at Texas Homecare in Clacton and
pretty much spending all my cash (spare or otherwise) on records. It was less than a year since Kurt Cobain
killed himself which had kind of sunk the ship of grunge and alternative rock
in general. Another friend had actually
bought the Bush album and things were looking doomed. Indeed it is said that the death of Cobain
weighed heavy on the recording of this album with Roddy Bottum being a friend
of Courtney Love who herself was originally a singer for the band.
Bursting out the
blocks King For A Day opens in strong fashion as “Get Out” gallops in frenetic
fashion playing out like an update of “New Rose” albeit with only marginal
difference to the first single “Digging
The Grave”. With that the pace takes
a more measured stance with “Ricochet”
as a looming presence grips proceedings as the prospects of the piece hang
heavy in the air.
The genre hops begin
early on this album as “Evidence”
swoops in as the third track completely rearranging the mood of the piece and
slashing expectations attached. However
once the culture shock has been consumed then exhumed “Evidence” is actually a
very good Faith No More song. Whereas
similar tracks such as “Edge Of The World” and shameful “Easy”
were once relegated to periphery, the positioning here in the order of a smoky
jazz funk number is quite the revelation.
Things return metallic
with thumping riffs of “The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies” with its loud quiet
loud dynamics and vocal gymnastics resembling something of a queer verbal
assault. Yet again the hook lay more in
Patton’s vocal yell than anything the music has to offer.
Then things turn
weird.
“Star A.D.” is another
funky track, heavy on horns and lounge keyboards taking things in a velvety
direction that does not tend to rub in mud.
Exploration often begat explanation.
From perspective you could see it as some kind of David Lynch party
track but ultimately it is just a bit too fat, bit too obvious. There is a lot going but it’s hard to care a
lot.
And on that note the
juvenile “Cuckoo For Caca” drops in offering little more than a shit caked
rework of “Jizzlobber” from past glories.
It is shit on many levels. And
after that arrives the Portuguese “Caralho Voador” with means “flying dick” in
its mother tongue. Even worse than this
though is the manner in which it musically resembles “Pets” by Porno For Pyros. Was the band really so redundant in ideas?
As the record lumbers
into the second half the listener finds itself subjected to Faith No
More-by-numbers in the form of “Ugly In The Morning” and “Digging
The Grave”. These aren’t bad tracks,
just not career defining ones. And both
tracks had appeared on the lead single anyway, so there was nothing new and no
surprises here by this stage.
From here the album
ends in bloated fashion. “Take This
Bottle” opens sounding like the Guns N’ Roses version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s
Door” as Patton’s Cave-esqe growl coupled subtle slide guitar gives it a
damaged swamp blues vibe. Similarly
“King For A Day” sails out in extended fashion again reminding of a mellow
Perry Farrell work. The longest track on
the album by the end it inhabits epic proportions and gestures. However the guitar sound never quite
destroys, never quite nails. There’s a
lot of seduction and remorse attached to this moment.
Following up in almost
reflective fashion is “What A Day” serving as the third short sharp blast of
the album. In mantra Patton sings “I should’ve
killed it”, “I should’ve learned it” and “I should’ve notice it” in remorseful
fashion. Elsewhere within the words is
the line “kill the body and the head will die” with is a direct life from Fear And
Loathing In Las Vegas and clear reference to Hunter S. Thompson. If only there was a bit more of his reckless
abandon influencing proceedings.
With that the sense of
remorse remains during the close out of the record as the chunky “The Last To
Know” sails out closing the voyage before the huge sounding “Just A Man” ends
the album with its regal Asian overtones and clear sense of being the last
dance. In conclusion it contains an
Icarus reference coupled with a crazed spoken word section ahead of a lush
gospel choir being brought on the scene.
This is tough album to
endure. There is an air of sacrifice
attached with a real sense fragility and imperfection, of fear of failure
turning into genuine failure. It has its
moments but so does everything else.
It stopped a gap.
Thesaurus moment:
bork.
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