Album of the Year (Faith No More album)

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Album of the Year
Fnm aoty.jpg
Studio album by Faith No More
Released June 3, 1997
Recorded 1996-1997 at Brilliant Studios, San Francisco, California
Genre
Length 43:04
Label Slash
Producer
Faith No More chronology
King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime
(1995)King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime1995		 Album of the Year
(1997)		 Sol Invictus
(2015)Sol Invictus2015
Singles from Album of the Year
  1. "Ashes to Ashes"
    Released: May 19, 1997
  2. "Last Cup of Sorrow"
    Released: August 5, 1997
  3. "Stripsearch"
    Released: November 11, 1997
  4. "She Loves Me Not"
    Released: 1998 [cancelled]
Album of the Year bonus limited edition
Cover for the 18 song limited edition released in Europe.


Album of the Year is the sixth studio album by American rock band Faith No More. It was released on June 3, 1997, (June 9, 1997 in the UK and Europe)[2] and is the first album to feature the band's current guitarist Jon Hudson. It is the final studio album by the band to be released through Slash Records, as well as their last album for nearly eighteen years after their break-up in April 1998, citing the members' interests in pursuing other projects.

The album was recorded in Billy Gould's home studio, and is described by Allmusic as being "more straightforward musically than past releases."[1] The album spawned three singles: "Ashes to Ashes," "Last Cup of Sorrow" and "Stripsearch."

Critical reception upon release has been mixed, with some critics citing that the members' involvement with other projects at the time detracted from the album's overall sound.

Artwork

The photograph on the front cover is of Czechoslovakia's first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. As the principal founding father of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk was regarded in a way similar to the way George Washington is regarded in the United States. (Even to this day, Czechs alike regard him as a symbol of democracy.)

The liner notes for the album jacket depicts the funeral of an old man, with the words "pravda vítězí" (truth prevails) adorning the coffin. The statement is the motto of the Czech Republic. The use of the imagery on the album art is representative of an end to a golden age — namely, the band's. The art was reflected with the band frequently wearing suits during their tour in support of the album. The trend carried over to their 2009 reunion tour.

The album sleeve did not feature printed lyrics; however, Mike Patton and Billy Gould did submit official lyrics to fnm.com,[3] which was a fan controlled site prior to the band reformation in 2009.[4]

One rather persistent, but ultimately false claim among the fans of the band, attributes the photography belonging to Lenin's funeral. The band did acknowledge the similarity of facial features, however.

Songs

"Naked in Front of the Computer" is the fourth song on the album. It was listed on promo copies as "Naked in Front of This Computer"; it is unknown whether this is a working title or a mistake. It is one of the few songs in the Faith No More catalogue written solely by Mike Patton. When asked about the song's meaning, Billy Gould replied: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

Actually, this song is about email. Patton is kind of obsessed with the idea of how people can communicate and have relationships over the computer without talking or ever meeting. So this is an extreme version of that concept. Funny thing is...the image of someone sitting naked in front of a computer might not have made sense to people a few years ago, but now everybody knows what it means. It's become part of our culture.

— Billy Gould, [5]

"She Loves Me Not" is the eighth song on the album. The song itself seems to draw its influence from lounge music. It was to be the fourth single off the album, but the band ended before this could be accomplished. It has also never been played live. Despite this, it made an appearance on Faith No More's 2006 greatest hits compilation The Platinum Collection. When asked about the song, Billy Gould replied: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

This song almost didn't make it on the record. We almost didn't even record vocals for it because it's so different from all of the other songs. I wrote this song, and I was almost embarrassed to play it for anybody in the band because it's so soft - but at the same time it's a good song. It's like a Boyz II Men song or something. I didn't play it for anybody for, like, a half a year, and then finally I played it for Puffy. He thought we should give it a try, so I gave it to Patton, and he said, 'I wrote words, but they're pretty over-the-top.' But we went forward with it, and he really sang his ass off.

— Billy Gould, [5]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[1]
Entertainment Weekly B[6]
Pitchfork 2.4/10[7]
Rolling Stone 1.5/5 stars [8]
Spin 3.5/5 stars[9]

Initially Album of the Year was met with some lukewarm to negative responses from critics, with the Rolling Stone magazine rating the album one-and-a-half stars out of five and commented that the band "...are floundering around desperately, groping for a sense of identity and direction in a decade that clearly finds them irrelevant".[8] However, the album developed praise from both critics and fans alike in the years after the band's break-up in 1998. AllMusic gave the album a rating of four stars out of five and described it as being "a fitting way for one of alt-rock's most influential and important bands to end its career."[1]

Singer Mike Patton criticized the album in a 2001 interview, saying "[We split] Because we were starting to make bad music. And that's when you need to pull the plug. Our next record would have been a piece of shit".[10]

Commercial

As of 2015, the album had sold 221,000 copies in the U.S.[11] This nearly matched the total for King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime but was a significantly lower figure than that of the other two albums featuring Mike Patton on vocals. In other charts it fared much better, peaking at #1 in Australia and New Zealand. It also went Platinum in Australia for sales of more than 70,000 copies.[12] The album only had slight impact in the UK charts but it did go Gold for sales of more than 100,000 copies. The biggest downfall for this album was perhaps in the US where sales were significantly lower than previous efforts. Album Of The Year has sold just Over one million albums worldwide.

Release history

Initial pressings of the Australian, UK and Dutch versions of the album included a bonus remix disc.

Album of the Year would be the second album in the band's discography to be re-released by Dutch music label Music On Vinyl after Angel Dust.[13] Released on August 26, 2013, the album had a limited pressing run of 2000 hand numbered copies on gold vinyl, as well as on black vinyl which remains available in some retailers.

Track listing

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Collision"   Hudson, Patton 3:24
2. "Stripsearch"   Hudson, Bordin, Gould 4:29
3. "Last Cup of Sorrow"   Patton, Gould 4:12
4. "Naked in Front of the Computer"   Patton 2:08
5. "Helpless"   Patton, Bordin, Gould 5:26
6. "Mouth to Mouth"   Hudson, Patton, Bordin, Gould 3:48
7. "Ashes to Ashes"   Hudson, Patton, Bordin, Gould, Bottum 3:37
8. "She Loves Me Not"   Patton, Bordin, Gould 3:29
9. "Got That Feeling"   Patton 2:20
10. "Paths of Glory"   Hudson, Patton, Bordin, Gould, Bottum 4:17
11. "Home Sick Home"   Patton 1:59
12. "Pristina"   Patton, Gould 3:51
Bonus tracks
No. Title Length
13. "The Big Kahuna" (Japanese or limited Edition bonus track) 3:07
14. "Light Up and Let Go" (Japanese or limited Edition bonus track) 2:20
15. "Last Cup of Sorrow (Rammstein Mix)" (Limited Edition bonus track) 4:23
16. "Ashes to Ashes (Hardknox Alternative Mix)" (Limited Edition bonus track) 6:47
17. "She Loves Me Not (Spinna Crazy Dub Mix)" (Limited Edition bonus track) 4:41
18. "Last Cup of Sorrow (Sharam VS FNM Club Mix)" (Limited Edition bonus track) 7:24
Bonus disc
No. Title Length
1. "Last Cup of Sorrow (Bigfoot And Wildboy Mix)"   8:44
2. "Last Cup of Sorrow (Bonehead Mix)"   4:54
3. "Ashes to Ashes (Hardknox Horned Hand Mix)"   6:47
4. "Ashes to Ashes (Automatic 5 Dub)"   6:10
5. "She Loves Me Not (Spinna Main Mix)"   4:41
6. "Ashes to Ashes (Dillinja Mix)"   5:30

Personnel

Faith No More
Production
  • Roli Mosimann – producer, mixing
  • Paul Ceppaglia – mixing assistant
  • Atom – engineer
  • Mike Bogus – engineer
  • Daniel Presley – engineer
  • Howie Weinberg – mastering
  • Katherine Delaney – art direction, design

Accolades

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Kerrang! United Kingdom "Albums of the Year"[14] 1997 10

Chart positions

Album

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Chart Peak
Australian Albums Chart 1
Czech Republic Top 40 1
New Zealand Charts 1
German Album Charts 2
Finnish Albums Chart[15] 4
UK Albums (OCC)[16] 7
Swedish Top 50 11
U.S. Billboard 200 40
Singles
Year Title Peak chart positions
US Main[17] AUS
[18]		 FIN
[19]		 NOR
[20]		 NZ
[21]		 SWI
[22]		 UK
[23][24]
1997 "Ashes to Ashes" 22 8 7 14 39 50 15
"Last Cup of Sorrow" 14 66 — — 32 — 51
"Stripsearch" — 83 — — — — —
"—" denotes singles that were released but did not chart.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Rolling Stone
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Mike Patton, June 30th 2001, Wâldrock Festival Link
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ http://www.musiconvinyl.com/catalog/faith-no-more/album-of-the-year#.VNq5Yy4npPg
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Suomen virallinen lista Archived January 7, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ "Faith No More | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Preceded by Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album
June 29 – July 5, 1997		 Succeeded by
The Fat of the Land by The Prodigy
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