King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime
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| Faith No More |
| Album | |
| 13 March 1995 | |
| 1994 | |
| 3.79 / 5.0 from 6,937 ratings | |
| #30 for 1995, #1,576 overall | |
|
Alternative Metal | |
|
eclectic, male vocals, sarcastic, energetic, humorous, rhythmic, heavy, angry, manic, aggressive, dark, melodic, passionate, quirky, cryptic | |
| English | |
It takes some time to see how unique this CD is. It never gets boring and every song except Take This Bottle and Get Out is great. The best thing about this album is guitar - sounds very freshly. Good change after Jim Martin.
The list of the songs:
1.Get Out 6/10 - Good but too short and chaotic.
2.Ricochet 9/10 -
Great chorus, sounds like Foo Fighters.
3.Evidence 8/10 - Shows how unpredictable Faith No More is. Sounds more like Jazz.
4.The Gentle Art of Making Enemies 9/10 - Very energetic with angry voice. System Of A Down may have been inspired by this song.
5.Star A.D. 9/10 - Very interesting and relaxing.
6.Cuckoo for Caca 8/10 - Very agressive song. Mike's vocals are very freaky.
7.Caralho Voador 9/10 - On the other hand this is very calm song. Great bass and drums.
8.Ugly in
the Morning 9/10 - Next very disquieting song with extremely insane ending. Great guitars.
9.Digging the Grave 7/10 - Decent song but after some time it gets boring. Not a good choice for a single.
10.Take This Bottle 5/10 - This song is unfit for FNM. Boring.
11.King for a Day 9/10 - At the beginning I used to skip this song but then I realised how good it is. Very progressive.
12.What a Day 7/10 - Very catchy song. Nothing else.
13.The Last to Know 10/10 - The best song of
the album. Can't stop listening. Great intro and riff.
14.Just a Man 8/10 - Good song as the end of the CD.
Published
Faith No More are never going to be a band who garner middling reviews; they either attract vitriolic hatred or fulsome admiration. Similarly, their music defies a simplistic evaluation. The reason? Faith No More have no limitations. Their music runs the whole gamut from death metal to lounge-core cool which means all but the most eclectic music fan will have anything other than a pick 'n' mix appreciation of King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime. The music is, in turns, deranged, darkly humorous, funky, schizophrenic, versatile, jazzy and ferocious and Mike Patton's vocal somehow manages to swing from screaming caged animal to countrified twang without ever sounding forced or bogus. Listening to the album in one sitting is quite a trip and I know that even some of the more hardened Faith No More fans have occasion to skip certain tracks; such is their diversification.
King For A Day, Fool For A Morning is certainly more diverse than previous album Angel Dust – and some of that could be down to the change in personnel. It may only have been guitarist Jim Martin that called it quits but the loss of the satisfying crunch of his old school riffs has changed the dynamic of the whole band. I've no idea of the circumstances behind his departure but it's always seemed slightly odd to me that Trey Spruance, who was drafted in to play guitar on this album, is not listed with the other members of the band on the sleeve notes and doesn't warrant a photograph. Was his inclusion only a temporary measure? Did the band expect Martin to return? Whatever this isn't the same Faith No More.
I also believe that when you listen to tracks like "Get Out", "Ricochet", "Cuckoo For Caca" and "Ugly In The Morning" you can hear the template for nu-metal being forged. It may seem a little unpalatable to think that bands like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Blink 182, et al sprang from such an esteemed outfit as Faith No More but there it is. But those bands only chose to adopt the heads down, trashy thrash approach and there was always more to Faith No More than that.
"Digging The Grave" may not be the most revolutionary of hard rock songs but it's a brilliant throwback to when the genre sounded fresh and cutting edge. It remains one of my favourite tracks by the band. "Star A.D." has a jazzy backdrop that shouldn't work but somehow feels just right. "King For A Day" is almost progressive in its attitude. And superb ballads like "Take This Bottle", "Just A Man", "Caralho Voador" and, especially, "Evidence" are proof enough that this was a band almost unique in its take on what rock music was all about.
King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime is an album I've always sat on the fence about and hearing it again my attitude hasn't changed. It's great while it lasts but it's not something I'd come back to in a hurry. However, what it does do is drive home how good a band Faith No More were and how much they're missed.
Published
- 1 Get Out
- 2 Ricochet
- 3 Evidence
- 4 The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
- 5 Star A.D.
- 6 Cuckoo for Caca
- 7 Caralho Voador
- 8 Ugly in the Morning
- 9 Digging the Grave
- 10 Take This Bottle
- 11 King for a Day
- 12 What a Day
- 13 The Last to Know
- 14 Just a Man
Aye. Here we are. While it used to be a difficult decision between The Real Thing, Angel Dust, and this for best Faith No More album, it was finally decided for me a while back. This album is perfectly paced. This album has amazing variety. This album is a joy to listen to every single time. Every song carves out its own little niche and they're all very strong. Songs that I didn't notice before or weren't overly fond of are now some of my favorites ('Just a Man' now being my favorite on the album).
This was a good lineup for Faith No More. Of course Mike Patton's voice is the centerpiece for this creation, but the rest of the band turn in solid performances in their own right, including new guitarist Trey Spruance transplanted from Mr. Bungle. Everybody does what they do best on this album. Funky grooves, taut guitar riffs, some eccentricity, heaps and heaps of melody, and just a set of killer songs. Everything is here and it's all enjoyable. The only minor complaint I would have about this album is that 'Cuckoo for Caca' and 'Ugly in the Morning' tend to occupy just about the same headspace, sounding more similar than any other songs on the album. Very small complaint as both songs are of the highest quality (it is Faith No More, after all).
Published
9 45723-2 CD (1995)
King for a Day... showed FNM getting further in the "inter-stylistic" approach, fusing metal with rock, funk, jazz, and punk, and are not short of solid songs. Yet for me, the versatility and eccentricity are only at the surface level. I prefer more subtlety on Angel Dust.
Favorites: Ricochet, Evidence, Just a Man
8.8/10.0 B+
Published
- 1 Get Out
- 2 Ricochet
- 3 Evidence
- 4 The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
- 5 Star A.D.
- 6 Cuckoo for Caca
- 7 Caralho voador
- 8 Ugly in the Morning
- 9 Digging the Grave
- 10 Take This Bottle
- 11 King for a Day
- 12 What a Day
- 13 The Last to Know
- 14 Just a Man
Most people seem to either love or hate Mike Patton, and while I don’t hate the man, I certainly don’t love his style. I don’t think he really changed Faith No More as a band or even stylistically because they were never a serious group, but Mike tends to just make whatever he touches… goofy. He’s got a good voice when he sings normally, but he’s also prone to making weird voices almost like he’s doing character impressions or something.
Anyway, the album is pretty standard fair from what anyone’s come to expect from Patton and Faith No More. An eclectic collection of funky Alt. Metal that doesn’t take itself seriously and occasionally has a good hook or two. None of the music here was memorable to me except “Take This Bottle” which is a Country-tinged track and seemingly a rather serious one at that, having themes of alcohol induced abuse and relationship breakdown complimenting the beautiful piano and simple melancholic chords. The title track and penultimate “The Last to Know” similarly had a more serious tone to them and succeeded in capturing my attention with commanding hooks and strong progression.
Other than that, nothing really grabbed me. The tracks here aren’t bad (save for “Ugly in the Morning”) but they don’t bring much to the table other than the band’s trademark quirkiness. And quirkiness alone isn’t winning any points.
Published
Oh My God! What Is That Man Doing To His Voice?
In which Mike Patton finally gains full control of FNM, sucks the funk out, crafts a beautifully haywire concoction of metal magic that could easily be described as "theatrical," and - while that should rightly trigger all your bullshit detectors - somehow pulls it off.
MP loves to torture his voice and thus impart a little torture back on the listener, and this album definitely isn't your friend. Villainous bad vibes and heroically great riffs abound... the band's got some undeniable chops and the mix keeps everything right in your face, resulting in this album feeling a lot less dated in the production department than the equally fascinating prequel Angel Dust.
The balance between hard and soft on this album leaves a chewy center for the musical curiosity connoisseur to enjoy... interludes of relative calm like Evidence and Caralho Voador are surrounded by nightmares and outbursts sure to leave you rattled - and ready for more.
Yeah, there's a country-metal-ballad here. And it's honestly GOOD, no shit! Elsewhere, you can be differently dazzled by the (semi-) title track, which soars from verse to chorus in an indescribably perfect way, and dies out agonizingly slowly in a haunting coda.
By the time you get to What a Day, you might start to get that creeping "I think I've heard this already" feeling, and you'd be right... as it so often goes with entries from the CD-first era, this could have been trimmed in a few places for a tighter LP.
At the end of the day, any album that makes you say "is this fucking guy serious right now?" without an accompanying track skip is doing something right - and by the time you've reached MP's death rattles and (truly) blood curdling screams in Cuckoo for Caca, you're probably already along for the ride... it's a rough ride that forces you to hang on for dear life at times, but ultimately gets you where you want to go. Or is that where FNM wants you to go?
(Speaking of final destinations, Just a Man feels very much like the closing credits for the audio-movie that is King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime. The sequencing across the album is uniformly well executed. And...not to spoil anything, but the climax of this track might be one of the least expected moments in an already unpredictable discography, and it's just flat-out beautiful.)
BONUS!: The album art and packaging is great, and accurately represents what this album sounds like.
Published
- 1 Get Out
- 2 Ricochet
- 3 Evidence
- 4 The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
- 5 Star A.D.
- 6 Cuckoo for Caca
- 7 Caralho voador
- 8 Ugly in the Morning
- 9 Digging the Grave
- 10 Take This Bottle
- 11 King for a Day
- 12 What a Day
- 13 The Last to Know
- 14 Just a Man
Faith No More’s best album in their awesome discography. Ricochet is one of my all time favorite songs, other great songs include Digging the Grave, Just a Man and Evidence
Published
In the face of turbulent adversity, FNM still manages to make their dark horse masterpiece.
What an album. You can tell that a wide array of bands like System Of a Down and Glassjaw took cues from this album. It covers so much ground from post-hardcore (Get Out and Ricochet) to funk (Evidence and Star A.D.) to country (Take This Bottle) to death metal (Cuckoo For Caca) and gospel (Just a Man).
While I love The Real Thing and Angel Dust, I think I prefer this more stripped down production as opposed to those previous two. Patton is of course the star but Trey Spruance really deserves credit for stepping in on guitars and really giving his all here and helping them make what is truthfully my favorite Faith No More album. Absolutely can't recommend enough
Published
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