Angel Dust (album)

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Angel Dust
Angel Dust cover
Studio album by Faith No More
Released June 8, 1992 (1992-06-08)
Recorded Coast Recorders in Brilliant Studios San Francisco, California January – March 1992[1]
Genre Experimental rock
Alternative metal
Length Original: 58:49
Reissue: 61:54
Label Slash
Producer Matt Wallace
Professional reviews
Faith No More chronology
Live at the Brixton Academy
(1990)
Angel Dust
(1992)
Video Croissant
(1993)
Alternate Cover
The cover of the 6 track promo CD
The cover of the 6 track promo CD
Singles from Angel Dust
  1. "Midlife Crisis"
    Released: May 26, 1992
  2. "Land of Sunshine"
    Released: as an album sampler
  3. "A Small Victory"
    Released: August 3, 1992
  4. "A Small Victory (Remix)"
    Released: September 1, 1992
  5. "Everything's Ruined"
    Released: November 9, 1992
  6. "Easy"
    Released: December 29, 1992

Angel Dust is the fourth studio album by American rock band Faith No More, first released through Slash on June 8, 1992 in Europe and the United States. It's the final studio album with long time guitarist "Big" Jim Martin and the second to feature Mike Patton on vocals however it is the first album in which he had an influence on the band's sound, as Patton hadn't previously had input on the musical composition of the albums predecessor, The Real Thing, as it had all been composed and recorded prior to his joining.

It remains as Faith No More's highest-selling album outside the United States in which, as of July 2007, the album has sold 664,000 copies there. The album and subsequent tour were very successful in Europe where it went Platinum for sales of more than 1 million copies and Gold in Australia for selling more than 35,000 copies. Worldwide sales are around 3.0 million copies for this record.

Contents

[edit] Background

Following the success of their previous album, The Real Thing and the subsequent tour that followed, Faith No More began work on its follow-up, Angel Dust. They decided not to "play it safe" and re-do their last album and went off in a different direction musically,[2] much to the dismay of Jim Martin,[3] who also didn't approve of the album's title, which Roddy Bottum chose, in an interview taken while they were in the studio he said:

Roddy wanted to name it Angel Dust, I don't know why, I just want you to know that if it's named Angel Dust, it didn't have anything to do with me.[4]

[edit] Creation process

Unlike their previous album, Angel Dust was largely written by Gould, Bottum and Bordin. The band would record demos of the songs and send them to Martin for him to work on his own the guitar arrangements. Patton contributed on many of those songs as well. The band originally went in studio to record a total of 17 songs. However after writing two more while in studio, a total of 19 were recorded.[1][5] At the time they had not officially titled them, so they were known by these working titles:

  • "Shuffle", "Triplet" – "Caffeine"
  • "Madonna" – "Midlife Crisis"
  • "Macaroni and Cheese", "Country Western Song" – "RV"
  • "Arabic" – "Smaller and Smaller"
  • "F Sharp" – "Kindergarten"
  • "I Swallow" – "Be Aggressive"
  • "Japanese" – "A Small Victory"
  • "Action Adventure" – "Crack Hitler"
  • "The Sample Song" – "The World Is Yours"
  • "The Carpenters Song"
  • "The Funk Song"

It is unsure if the recording session included "Das Schutzenfest" as the production is only credited to "Faith No More", and not "Matt Wallace and Faith No More", as is the album. "Let's Lynch the Landlord" was recorded prior to the album recording session, originally scheduled to be on a Dead Kennedys covers compilation album on Mordam Records, it was however released on Alternative Tentacles Records.

[edit] Track listing

Official songwriting credits revealed by Billy Gould in an email, 2004.

# Title Lyrics Music Length
1. "Land of Sunshine"   Patton Gould, Bottum 3:44
2. "Caffeine"   Patton Gould, Patton 4:28
3. "Midlife Crisis"   Patton Bottum, Bordin, Gould, Patton 4:21
4. "RV"   Patton Bottum, Patton, Gould 3:43
5. "Smaller and Smaller"   Patton Gould, Bordin, Bottum, Wallace 5:11
6. "Everything's Ruined"   Patton, Gould Gould, Bottum, Patton 4:33
7. "Malpractice"   Patton Patton 4:02
8. "Kindergarten"   Patton, Bottum Gould, Martin 4:31
9. "Be Aggressive"   Bottum Bottum 3:42
10. "A Small Victory"   Patton Gould, Bottum, Bordin, Patton 4:57
11. "Crack Hitler"   Patton Gould, Bottum, Bordin 4:39
12. "Jizzlobber"   Martin, Patton Martin 6:38
13. "Midnight Cowboy"     Barry 4:12
14. "Easy" (Re-release only [6]) Richie Richie 3:04
15. "As the Worm Turns" (Japanese bonus track [6]) Mosely Bottum, Gould, Mosely 2:39
Promo track list
# Title Length
1. "Midlife Crisis"   4:21
2. "Kindergarten"   4:31
3. "Land of Sunshine"   3:44
4. "Everything's Ruined"   4:33
5. "Epic"   4:51
6. "We Care a Lot" (Live at Brixton) 3:50

[edit] Bonus Discs

There were several different bonus discs released with various editions and formats of the album.

Free Concert in the Park

This disc came with the second and third pressings of the Australian release, it contains four tracks from a free concert at Munich, Germany in November 9, 1992 (Cat no. D30953 and TVD93378 (RMD53378) respectively).[6]

  1. "Easy" – 3:06
  2. "Be Aggressive" – 3:42
  3. "Kindergarten" – 4:44
  4. "Mark Bowen" – 3:16
Woodpecker From Mars

This disc was a promotional release on Limited Edition pressings of Angel Dust in France. On the back it reads "ne peut etre vendu separement offert avec l'album 'Angel Dust' dans la limite des stocks disponibles",[6] which translates to "offered with the album Angel Dust while stocks last, not to be sold separately"

  1. "Woodpecker From Mars" (Live from Norwich, 1990)
  2. "Underwater Love" (Live from Brixton, April 28, 1990)
Midlife Crisis 12"

This disc was released with Limited Edition UK vinyl's as a Double Vinyl Pack, it was also released as the "Midlife Crisis" single a week prior to the albums, the first disc (with or without the bonus disc) lacked the tracks "Crack Hitler" and "Midnight Cowboy" in addition the track "Smaller and Smaller" appeared as the last track (Cat no. 828 326-1).[6]

  1. "Midlife Crisis (The Scream Mix)" – 3:56
  2. "Crack Hitler" – 4:39
  3. "Midnight Cowboy" – 4:13
Interview Disc
This disc was a promotional release on Limited Edition pressings of Angel Dust in Europe released on August 24, 1992 (Cat no. 828 321-2), and was also released separately in a slimline case (Cat no. FNMCD3). The questions were printed inside the packaging with answers on the CD lasting 18:41.[6]

[edit] Track Notes

  • The lyrics for "Land of Sunshine" include lines from fortune cookies and Scientology's personality test[7]
  • "Caffeine" as well as "Land of Sunshine" were written while Mike Patton was doing a sleep deprivation experiment[8]
  • "Smaller and Smaller" was never performed live, and the only time "Malpractice" was performed live was during The Dillinger Escape Plan/Mike Patton collaboration.[9]
  • "Malpractice" contains a sample of Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8, as performed by the Kronos Quartet.
  • "Be Aggressive", written by Roddy Bottum, is about "swallowing" during oral sex. Roddy later stated "It was a pretty fun thing to write, knowing that Mike was going to have to put himself on the line and go up onstage and sing these vocals."[8]
  • The intro to 'Crack Hitler' features a sample of Iris Lettieri - a Brazilian actress whose voice Mike Patton had become enamoured of whilst on tour - reading a flight announcement. (Iris Lettieri has been the voice of announcements at Galeão/Antonio Carlos Jobim Airport in Rio for over three decades).
  • In South Korea the vinyl album had several tracks cut through tough censorship. The tracks are in a different order, and "Caffeine", "RV" and "Crack Hitler" are omitted. "Midnight Cowboy", is, however, included, despite having been left off the original US and UK versions.[6]
  • The tracks "Crack Hitler" and "Midnight Cowboy" are omitted in Holland, Brazil, Colombia and some UK pressings.[6]

[edit] Accolades

The information regarding accolades acquired from AcclaimedMusic.net

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Villiage Voice United States "Albums of the Year"[10] 1992 26
Face United Kingdom "Albums of the Year"[11] 1992 17
Q United Kingdom "Albums of the Year"[12] 1992 *
Raw United Kingdom "Albums of the Year"[13] 1992 8
Vox United Kingdom "Albums of the Year"[14] 1992 10
OOR Netherlands "Albums of the Year"[15] 1992 36
Musik Express/Sounds Germany "Albums of the Year"[16] 1992 1
Kerrang! United Kingdom "50 Most Influential Albums of all Time"[17] 2003 1
Revolver United States "The 69 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time" 2002 36
Metal Hammer United Kingdom "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 90s"[18] 2006 *
Raw United Kingdom "90 Essential Albums of the 90s"[19] 1995 *
Terrorizer United Kingdom "The 100 Most Important Albums of the 90s"[20] 2000 *
Panorama Norway "The 30 Best Albums of the Year 1970-98" 1999 3
Visions Germany "The Best Albums 1991-96"[21] 1996 *
Visions Germany "The Most Important Albums of the 90s"[22] 1999 22
An Asterisk (*) in the rank field signifies an unordered list

[edit] Chart

[edit] Album

Chart Peak
Flag of the United States Billboard 200[23] 10
Flag of the United Kingdom UK Albums Chart[24] 2
Flag of Germany German Album Charts[25] 8
Flag of Switzerland Swiss Album Chart[26] 9
Flag of Austria Ö3 Austria Top 40[27] 4
Flag of the Netherlands Dutch Album Charts[28] 22
Flag of Sweden Swedish Album Charts[29] 18
Flag of Norway Norwegian Charts[30] 7

[edit] Singles

Year Title Peak Chart positions
Hot 100 [31] Main- stream Rock [31] Modern Rock Tracks [31][32] UK Singles Chart [24] Irish Singles Chart [33] ARIA Singles Charts [34][35]
1992 "Midlife Crisis" - 32 1 10 13 31
"A Small Victory" - - 11 29 - -
"Everything's Ruined" - - - 28 - -
1993 "Easy" 58 - - 3 5 1

[edit] Release Histories

Click on the [Show] buttons to view the selected history

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b The Making of Angel Dust, Mike Bordin interview. MTV. Retrieved 22 December 2007
  2. ^ Chris Groves, Angel of Weird - Faith No More article. Hot Metal Issue Mid 1992. Retrieved 22 December 2007
  3. ^ Faith No More - Bio. FNM.com, paragraph 6, Retrieved 23 January 2008
  4. ^ The Making of Angel Dust, Jim Martin interview. MTV. Retrieved 22 December 2007
  5. ^ The Making of Angel Dust, Billy Gould interview. MTV. Retrieved 26 February 2008
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h The PDF discography text alternative. FNM.com. retrieved 10 December 2007
  7. ^ referenced in Land of Sunshine
  8. ^ a b Q25 on the FAQ on the Faith No More website
  9. ^ The play statistics on the Faith No More wbsite
  10. ^ Village Voice - Albums of the Year. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  11. ^ Face - Albums of the Year. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  12. ^ Q - Albums of the Year. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  13. ^ Raw - Albums of the Year. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  14. ^ Vox - Albums of the Year. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  15. ^ OOR - Albums of the Year. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  16. ^ Musik Express/Sounds - Albums of the Year. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  17. ^ Kerrang!. Kerrang! - 50 Most Influential Albums of all Time. RockListMusic.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
  18. ^ Metal Hammer - The 200 Greatest Albums of the 90s. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  19. ^ Raw - 90 Essential Albums of the 90s. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  20. ^ Terrorizer - The 100 Most Important Albums of the 90s. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  21. ^ Visions - The Best Albums 1991-96. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  22. ^ Visions - The Most Important Albums of the 90s. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  23. ^ Billboard chart history - Faith No More albums. Billboard magazine. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  24. ^ a b UK Top 40 charts search engine. EveryHit.co.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  25. ^ German charts history - Faith No More albums MusicLine.de. Retrieved 1 June 2008
  26. ^ Swiss charts history - Faith No More. HitParade.ch. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  27. ^ Austrian charts history - Faith No More. AustrianCharts.at. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  28. ^ Dutch charts history - Faith No More. DutchCharts.nl. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  29. ^ Swedish charts history - Faith No More. SwedishCharts.com. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  30. ^ Norwegian charts history - Faith No More. NorwegianCharts.com. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  31. ^ a b c Singles chart history - Faith No More. Billboard magazine. Retrieved 19 December 2007
  32. ^ Hot Modern Rock Tracks - Midlife Crisis. Billboard magazine. Retrieved 19 December 2007
  33. ^ Irish singles charts search engine. IrishCharts.ie. retrieved on 28 May 2008
  34. ^ Australian singles chart history - Faith No More. australian-charts.com. Retrieved 20 December 2007
  35. ^ Australian singles chart - Easy. Australian-Charts.com. Retrieved 20 December 2007