Faith No More - Angel Dust
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.10 You Save: $1.88 (24%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.08 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Angel Dust
Free Music Review: One of the finest discs of the 90s.
Hit: 5 Stars
Faith No More, Angel Dust (Slash/Reprise, 1992)Angel Dust, almost universally panned upon its 1992 release, has paid back its critics in spades recently by being named the most influential album of all time by Kerrang! magazine. Patton's finest FNM-era lyrics combine with the band's heaviest work ever to create an (no pun intended) epic of hysteria. From the quiet "Midnight Cowboy" to the cheerleader-esque "Be Aggressive" to the Steinbeck-inspired "Smaller and Smaller" and every possible space in between. Thirteen of the most glorious rock and roll tunes ever recorded.
That said, the album's highlight, and one of Patton's greatest lyrical triumphs (along with King for a Day's "Evidence") during the FNM years, is "Kindergarten." The song doesn't get enough press when this album is discussed because it lacks the extremity of "Jizzlobber," the popularity of "Midlife Crisis," or the experimental qualities of "RV." Nevertheless, it is a perfect example of what it is meant to be-a catchy, easy to follow rock/metal song. Patton manages to blend the wistful, the despairing, the impressionist, the nostalgic, and the angry into one song with complete aplomb. FNM may be considered the progenitors of the current rap-metal movement dominating the airwaves, but if any of the bands involved in it have written a song this good, I haven't heard it yet.
Angel Dust is not an essential metal album, it is THE essential metal album. One of the finest releases of the 1990s. *****
Free Music Review: Utterly Indescribable
Hit: 5 Stars
"Angel Dust" the follow up to Faith No More's breakthrough "The Real Thing" sees the band making a quantum leap beyond the updated prog and proto rap-metal of that album into a rarified realm all it's own.The band's sound was already astounding,leaping between genres with impunity following it's own twisted muse with very little concern about mainstream acceptance.That's certainly true of "Angel Dust" evident from the acid-fried carny ride of the opener,"Land Of Sunshine",and it's ironic self-help manifestos festooned with insane cackling."RV" is positively Tom Wiats-ian,with a slyly dark first-person narrative from a burnt-out trailer park refugee."Be Aggressive" is a jaw-dropper: an organ-fuled funk stomper that features an irresistable half-time cheer chorus,with real cheerleaders! And on bruising,transcendantly intense tracks like "Midlife Crisis","Smaller and Smaller",and Caffeine",the power and brutal grace of the unit shines brightly:despite it's sometimes sopophoric dependence on shock lyrics and lurid,pulpy horror show atmospherics,this is a tight,accomplished and formally wrought band,capable of stunningly sweeping soundscapes like "Kindergarten" and "A Small Victory"(which resembles some miraculous duet between Elton John and Public Enemy).This album is highly recommended for those who like thier music to be challenging and completely original.Free Music Review: One of the best rock albums of the 90's.
Hit: 5 Stars
It's been said many times before, but this album truly is a classic. It's creative, original, bizarre, unpretentious, and utterly perfect. I love every FNM album (well, all the Patton ones, anyway), but in my opinion, this one stands out above them all. In fact, I'd say that this is probably the best album Patton's ever done, in all his myriad projects (even if it's not the most artistically daring). Here, everything just really came together, and the result is remarkable.
While not as cutthroat in its diversity as Mr. Bungle, this album still covers a lot of musical ground. You've got dark, nightmarish metal, like "Malpractice" and "Jizzlobber", funk-tinged tracks like "Crack Hitler" and "Land of Sunshine", raprock like "Kindergarden" and "Midlife Crisis", smooth, lounge-esque balladry like "Everything's Ruined", and "RV", which I can only describe as something like a deranged clone of Johnny Cash. Then you have songs like "Be Aggressive", "A Small Victory", and the instrumental "Midnight Cowboy", which seem to forge styles all their own.
This album is just plain fantastic. The keyboards complement the music in a very special way, and Mike Patton proves to be one of the great vocalists of our time (plus, he heavily influenced other great singers, like Devin Townsend, Daniel Gildenlow, and many others).
Simply put, you just can't be without this album. It is truly a force to be reckoned with.
Free Music Review: Against The Mainstream......Ahead Of It's Time
Hit: 5 Stars
I recently picked this amazing album up again after over twelve years, and was once again just as infatuated with this album as I was when I first heard it. It really is difficult to express how far ahead of their time this band really was, and how anti-establishment this album was. After winning a grammy and becoming a household name, Mike Patton and co. release a completely bizarre, surrealistic, anti-commerical album that must have made record company execs pull their hair out. Whether intentional or not, this album must have seemed like a big middle finger to people who expected this to be popular. Judging from Mr. Patton's subsequent work (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas), I can only assume that FNM knew exactly what they were doing.
This album plays like an auditory David Lynch-esque journey through a nightmarish post-modern, absurdist American landscape. Crushing near-death metal riffs from oddball guitarist Jim Martin collide sideways into Mike Patton's powerful and melodic vocals, throbbing bass lines and odd sampling and eerie piano and keyboard effects. Lyrically this album reflects Mike Patton's near Da Da-like affectation for the surreal and absurd aspects of life in modern society, as well as being rather dark and anxiety provoking at times. One of the few completely original albums out there, and a real classic. Faith No More were alt before alt, nu-metal before nu-metal, and progressive in their own completely unique way.
Free Music Review: Puts All Present "Alternative" Rock to Shame
Hit: 5 Stars
I have looked for Faith No More stickers and patches and t-shirts, but the main music consumers of this genre of music today (13-20 year olds) are too caught up in posers and lame copy-cats, thus deprived of cursory exposure to FNM's name. A lamentable fact, because FNM blew away all alternative music competition with "Angel Dust," their finest album, and it's sad that the younger listeners today think that the music they listen to now is original just because it's presented in an updated, slick, corporate-engineered angst wrapper. If you want to hear original, in-your-face, emotional songs that defy categorization and even make you think, get a copy of "Angel Dust" and crank it up. Mike Patton can truly sing (but yells and screams when he needs to put a chill down your spine), and his lyrics are inspired genius of a caliber comparable to ________ (put great poet here). Jim Martin plays his most imaginitive and adrenalized guitar of his FNM career on "Angel Dust," and the rest of the band rocks so cohesively it camoflages the intricacy of the music. This album is a conceptual masterpiece (conveying a male mid-life crisis) that hits the listener between the eyes from beginning to end. I've heard no album that I could compare "Angel Dust" to -- it stands alone. Fifteen years from now it will be a certified classic, and I expect (and demand) a Gold Edition of this CD soon.