Stooge
“It’s years ahead of it’s time” is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot when describing music. While King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime probably didn’t exactly sound futuristic upon its release in 1995, it has aged extremely well. If somebody told me that this album came out a few years ago, I’d believe it.
Most notable to anyone familiar with the band is the absence of founding guitarist Jim Martin. Patton’s Mr. Bungle bandmate, Trey Spruance, acts as session guitarist on the album. While there are some slight hints of the Martin-era sound (see “What A Day”), Patton, Bottum, Gould, and Bordin had definitely taken the band in a different direction.
As a fairly long album with regards to the quantity of tracks (14 total), the listener is treated to a wide variety of songs much like Angel Dust provided a few years earlier. You have some strong, uncompromising hard rockers (“Get Out”, “Digging The Grave”), some more off-the-wall songs ("The Gentle Art of Making Enemies", “Cuckoo For Caca”), and add some lighter songs to the mix (“Take This Bottle”, “Just A Man”).
Two of the tracks that interest me the most on this album, “Ricochet” and “Evidence”, aren’t the most original choices since both tracks were released as singles. “Ricochet” is a simple but spectacular hard rock song that is catchy without being overly-demanding of your attention. “Evidence” has the band taking on a light jazz/funk sound and features some of Patton’s best vocals on the album. Much like “Caralho Voador”, which has something of a bossa nova vibe, classifying “Evidence” as a metal song would be a stretch in any context. Faith No More is one of those bands that can pull such genre switching mid-album in a manner that it doesn’t sound forced or out of place. Add to those two tracks the warm and powerful “The Last To Know” to make up my personal favorites off King For A Day.
As arguably one of the band’s most underrated albums, I highly recommend checking out King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime, an album that flows nicely from beginning to end!