FAITH NO MORE — We Care A Lot (review)

FAITH NO MORE — We Care A Lot album cover Album · 1985 · Funk Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
While pre-Mike Patton era FAITH NO MORE doesn’t get a lot of attention due to the slightly inferior vocal skills and lyrical contributions of original singer Charles Mosley, it should be remembered that all the other members of the band who performed on “The Real Thing” and “Angel’s Dust” are already on board on their 1985 debut WE CARE A LOT. This band formed in San Francisco all the way back in 1979 and after shedding lame names such as Sharp Young Men and FAITH NO Man, finally settled on the more famous moniker. This debut finds the band breaking into the burgeoning funk rock scene emerging in the early 80s but with Jim Martin’s Sabbath inspired metal guitar riffs finds the band entering a much harder musical arena than contemporaries such as Red Hot Chili Peppers.

WE CARE ALOT begins with the super funky bass skills of William Gould with intermittent guitar chord grunge of Jim Martin but immediately displays a whole new element of funk rock turning into metal which includes the spooky atmospheric keyboard additions of band founder Roddy Bottum. This could properly be deemed atmospheric funk punk metal given all the elements on board on this debut. Another definitive attribute of this band from the get go is to exercise freedom of speech with vituperative criticism regarding societal issues affecting the national experience. “The Jungle” follows and displays a post-punk attitude reminding me of Pere Ubu meets new wave for a bit before blossoming into a punk sounding guitar riffage that merges the hardcore guitar with the atmospheric keys flowing together rather seamlessly.

At this stage the music sounds rather similar with the better known releases at times and this is especially true on the instrumental tracks such as “Pills For Breakfast” which sounds suspiciously in the same ball park as “Woodpecker From Mars” from “The Real Thing.” What really separates the first two albums is the contribution of Chuck Mosley on vocals as well as the lyrical content. While i don’t find this debut to be of equal value with the most famous albums of the band’s career, WE CARE A LOT does a competent job of keeping the album interesting from beginning to end. While the tracks change it up enough to keep me entertained, the one true weakness happens to be the vocals skills of Mosley who just didn’t have the multi-dimensional vocal skills to make this rhythmic music shine as FAITH NO MORE’s strength wasn’t with classically gifted instrumentalists doctoring up the songwriting, but rather the duties of the vocalist that milked the melodic potential of the rhythm section. Unfortunately despite a fairly decent debut, the band wouldn’t really take off until Mike Patton took the reigns on their third album. Still though, this album is really a fun listen and should not be ignored.
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siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Probably :P I do like them all but i'm with the masses liking the popular ones ;)
Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Great review, I personally really like Chuck Mosley's vocals and lyrics. Am I the only one who's favorite Faith No More album is Introduce Yourself?

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