American TV producer Dave Wiskus posted on X a few years ago, “The Matrix described 1999 as the peak of human civilization and I laughed because that would obviously not age well but then the next 23 years happened and now I’m like yeah okay maybe the machines had a point.” When it comes to music, the first half of the 1990s rolled out such an awe-inspiring run of timeless albums that it nearly defies the very laws of quantum physics, in retrospect. One American group stood out like a sore thumb with their genre-shuffling madness. FAITH NO MORE had made their breakthrough in the late 1980s, but their 1992 magnum opus “Angel Dust” irrevocably cemented the band as an unrivaled, boisterous force of nature. The album was a wild sightseeing trip through the dark back alleys of the American Dream, littered with a sense of real danger, unrestrained artistic freedom, and lethal sarcasm. The impact was something similar to putting a vial of nitroglycerin under your tongue, breaking it with your teeth, and blowing your face off. So, when the band released their next studio album about 3 years later, it was doomed to pale in comparison.
Had FAITH NO MORE released something like “Angel Dust Vol. 2,” fans would have blamed the band for cashing out, and when they opted for something completely different, instead, it wasn’t exactly the easiest pill to swallow, either, not immediately, anyway. “King For a Day… Fool For a Lifetime,” the fifth studio album overall for the band, was released on March 13th, 1995, via Slash and Reprise labels and it was received with somewhat confused and mixed reviews. Over time, however, it has forced many critics and fans alike to adjust their perhaps not-so-favorable opinion about the endeavor. When I first bought the album 30 years ago, I must admit I was hit in the head with a crushing disappointment, “What the hell is this?! I can’t even…” Then, after the initial shock had worn off, I took my time with the album, really listening to the songs and, after a while, I couldn’t stop trying to make my plebeian friends realize how goddamn awesome the outing really was. I was 21, so I guess I must have sounded like a raving lunatic.
What instantly set the album apart from its predecessor was the somewhat “dry” production, probably stemming from the fact that most of the songs had been written without keyboards. Keyboardist Roddy Bottum had been largely absent from the recording session, owing to the deaths of both his father and longtime friend Kurt Cobain. To make matters worse, he had also developed a heroin addiction, prompting the band to intervene at some point. However, even without as mind-blowing a cavalcade of great keyboard moments as “Angel Dust” had, this album does offer some of the best keyboard stuff Bottum has ever recorded – the lounge-lizard pianism in “Evidence,” for example.
Another striking difference to “Angel Dust” is in the song arrangements. For this album, the band wrote entire songs in different genres, whereas the earlier modus operandi had been about incorporating a stupefying number of genres into single songs in the vein of vocalist Mike Patton‘s longtime side-hustle MR. BUNGLE. This was the thing that probably shocked me the most at the time rather than the “dry-clean” sound, courtesy of sound-engineering legend Andy Wallace. While the album did have a few instant hits – even for the adolescent music snob, me – the punk-infested riffers, in particular, felt like a downgrade, to be honest. I’m not sure if I like “Ugly in the Morning” or “What A Day” that much even now; however, the latter does have a deliciously sardonic “Pattonism” in the lyrics that go, “What a day if you can look it in the face and hold your vomit.” Patton’s best stab at sarcastic one-liners, here, is in the chorus of “Ricochet,” going, “It’s always funny until someone gets hurt and, then, it’s just hilarious.”
Then, one simply cannot discuss this album without bringing up the issue of Jim Martin. “King For a Day… Fool For a Lifetime” was recorded with no contribution whatsoever from the band’s longtime guitarist – he had been expelled from the band via a fax in 1993. Judging by the rather savage remarks the band made about their old guitarist in interviews following the album release, the friction had had something to do with Martin‘s commitment, musical talent, and differences of opinion about the band’s new direction, which had been dubbed “gay disco” by Martin. With all due respect, he was something of a one-trick pony as a musician but, to give credit where it is due, that particular trick of his fit the psychotic beauty of “Angel Dust” just perfectly. On this album, his signature quirks would have, no doubt, sounded way out of place. There’s no way in hell his trademark thrash riffs, played with his one-finger-barré voicings, would have benefitted a gospel song like “Just A Man.”
The guitar parts on “King For a Day… Fool For a Lifetime” are credited to bassist Billy Gould, Bottum, and MR. BUNGLE guitarist Trey Spruance. It’s impossible to tell who plays on which track but, just maybe, the most impressive parts are courtesy of Spruance – his work with MR. BUNGLE is pretty damn versatile and nuanced. The guitar solos in “Evidence” and the psychedelic grunge-piece, “Last to Know,” are fire.
The album was criticized for being a lackluster exercise in baroque excess at the time of its release, and if there is one obvious culprit for such savagery, it must be the country-rock song, “Take This Bottle.” It is a somewhat bland sequel to the utterly sarcastic cabaret piece, “RV,” which was a brilliant take on the American white trash, resonating with the air of Tom Waits, on “Angel Dust.” I’m afraid the song feels like a breath of stale air, almost as if the whole band were trying to play completely shitfaced in a blissful coma. I reckon this song must be some inside joke or something. The only reason for listening to it, now and then, is Bottum‘s ingenious, dissonant keyboard line that would normally sound way out of line in such a depressing country song. Usually, I skip the track, though. By way of jokes, the bossa-nova song, “Caralho Voador” – Portuguese for “flying dick” – does a remarkably better job at making you giggle. Then, I find something diabolically entertaining in the Las Vegas big-band mayhem of “Star A.D.”
While it’s true that this FAITH NO MORE effort cannot be dubbed sanguine exactly, its liberal genre shuffling and dark humor are nowhere near as psychotic and evil as “Angel Dust” was – the band’s grand achievement in marrying death metal and puerile potty humor, “Cuckoo For Caca,” maybe notwithstanding. The dry-clean mix, courtesy of Andy Wallace, is probably the reason why even the angriest tracks fail to convey a dizzying sense of falling into the netherworld. The riffs bite and Mike Bordin‘s drumming hits the mark all the way through but, still, even at its most intense, the album feels “merely” like a top-notch alternative-rock album, not like the mind-altering trip on DMT that “Angel Dust” had been 3 years earlier. Then again, the album provided us with two bangers that are easily among the best FAITH NO MORE songs ever – “Digging the Grave” and “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies.” In the right frame of mind, “King For a Day… Fool For a Lifetime” does fulfill some social purpose – a sobering moment of coming to consciousness after the aforementioned wild trip through a parallel reality, perhaps.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Get Out
- Ricochet
- Evidence
- The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
- Star A.D.
- Cuckoo For Caca
- Caralho Voador
- Ugly in the Morning
- Digging the Grave
- Take This Bottle
- King For A Day
- What A Day
- The Last to Know
- Just A Man
Lineup
Mike Patton – vocals
Trey Spruance – guitars
Billy Gould – bass, guitars
Roddy Bottum – keyboards, guitars
Mike Bordin – drums
Label
Slash / Reprise Records
