Kill It! Kill It Before It Multiplies!
Written: May 02 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 2 decent tunes (one of which is available elsewhere), Jim Martin's guitar work
Cons: Chuck Mosley, underdeveloped ideas for songs
The Bottom Line: If you've got everything else they ever released, and are absolutely JONESING for an FNM fix, maybe "As The Worm Turns" will be worth buying the rest of the album.
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| shilmafone's Full Review: We Care Alot by Faith No More |
Faith No More is one of the greatest bands of all time, thanks in no small part to one of the greatest vocalists of all time, Mr. Mike Patton. Patton's operatic baritone and airy falsetto created a sweet chewy center for the crunchy (yet still incredibly tasty) outer candy shell created by drummer Mike Bordin, guitarist Jim Martin, bassist Billy Gould and keyboardist Roddy Bottum. Unfortunately, it wasn't always this way for the band--their first two releases We Care A Lot and Introduce Yourself featured a different vocalist at the helm, one Chuck Mosley.
When I first bought this album, the fact that Faith No More once had a vocalist other than Patton was not knowledge that I was privy to. Hearing Mosley make his entrance as a vocalist was something akin to biting through that candy shell and finding arsenic inside.
Yep, he sucks all right.
Luckily, Mosley's bandmates pull We Care A Lot from "I'll never listen to it again" to "I'll listen to it every six months or so just to remind myself what a great vocalist Patton is (especially when I'm in teenage fanboy mode like I am tonight)." The expert guitar work is there, the powerful drumming is there, the trademark airy, epic (ha ha) synths are there, but then there's Chuck, barreling in and out of key with perhaps the most annoying vocal tone the world has ever heard. Either Mosley sounds like he's about to fall asleep or he sounds like he's going to bust out laughing at any time, usually at the most inappropriate times. I'm sure this stuff sounded innovative at the time, but I can only imagine the heights Faith No More may have reached if they had only started their career with a different vocalist.
(end rant)
I suppose I should go through the songs now, just so you know which ones you should really avoid. We Care A Lot starts, appropriately enough, with "We Care A Lot," which was actually a semi-big hit in the mid-80's when it came out. Tongue-in-cheek lyrics about really caring about a whole bunch of different causes elevate this one above the average dreck on this album, and it's tolerable as long as Mosley's yelling rather than singing. The version found on Introduce Yourself is superior to this, however, so it's no reason to own the disc, particularly at the import price you'll find it at.
"The Jungle" sports one of the best guitar licks on the album, but Mosley's "sinister" vocals elicit laughs rather than chills. "Mark Bowen" tries it's hardest to sound epic (ha ha....again), but it needs a Patton behind it to give it that edge. "Jim" (presumably named for guitarist Jim Martin) is tolerable, merely because it's a minute and change of classical-style guitar solo. No vocals to be found. Unfortunately, it's followed up by five and a half of the most tedious minutes on the album, in the form of "Why Do You Bother." I'll skip the obvious joke, and just say that between the production problems and the incredible lack of anything catchy, you should never do yourself the injustice of subjecting yourself to this song.
"Greed" is Mosley's attempt to lash out at the critics who point out that he can't sing. Two words: they're right. "Pills for Breakfast" is pretty unnoteworthy except for some great slap-bass work from Bill Gould. Then there's "As the Worm Turns," the shining light in the midst of this dark dark disc. "As the Worm Turns" features excellent arpeggiated keyboards at the forefront, amazing guitars, and the one vocal performance on the album that's done with proper conviction and emotion. Mosley spits the words with vigor, and you actually want to scream with him for this one. Just when you think the disc might end well, "Arabian Disco" can't figure out a mood, and "New Beginnings" is a lame power ballad turned lame rocker, thus driving home proof that "As the Worm Turns" is a highly enjoyable fluke.
Perhaps my obvious idol-worship of Mike Patton makes me a bit biased on this one, but I can't see how anyone could really get into We Care A Lot. It's recommended for uber-fans of Faith No More only, or those who don't mind pounding nails into their skulls.
Recommended:
No
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shilmafone
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Member: Just Another Mike
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