636. Faith No More - The Real Thing (1989)
















Track Listing

1. From Out Of Nowhere
2. Epic
3. Falling To Pieces
4. Surprise You're Dead
5. Zombie Eaters
6. Real Thing
7. Underwater Love
8. Morning After
9. Woodpecker From Mars
10. War Pigs
11. Edge Of The World

Review

This is a perfectly good album with a couple of very good tracks. The best of them is undoubtedly Epic, mixing rock and rap with an ever changing melody that keeps you gripped the whole time and makes justice to its name.

That being said another highlight of the whole thing is Mike Patton's voice, which shift effortlessly from quite nice to aggressive or grotesque, unfortunately I don't think the band around him does justice to the potential of his voice, Epic is probably the track where you notice his vocal fireworks better.

Then there is a cover of War Pigs that is uncanny in its similarity to the original, and even if Faith No More do not make it their own, the do not ruin it. Another good track is the instrumental Woodpecker From Mars, with oriental undertones to it. Still, I liked it but wasn't really blown away, unfortunately it is the only Faith No More album on the list, oh and there's no Mr. Bungle as well, so no more Patton.

Track Highlights

1. Epic
2. War Pigs
3. Woodpecker From Mars
4. Falling To Pieces

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Most known for its tracks "Falling to Pieces," and "Epic," whose video featured a fish flopping about on the ground, the album's "Falling to Pieces" also became popular (its video was a favorite of MTV's Beavis and Butthead). The video for "Epic" was subject to controversy because of the perceived treatment of the fish, which appears to be dying—it was in fact slow motion footage; the fish was returned to its tank alive. Reportedly, keyboardist Roddy Bottum stole the goldfish from Icelandic singer Björk at a party she was throwing. He returned it to her after the shoot, which lasted mere seconds. Mike Patton claimed during the band's "Live at the Wireless" performance for Australian radio station Triple J, in 1990, that the title track was "Written after my girlfriend left me for Sebastian Bach."

Faith No More: