Confirmed: Faith No More’s new album way better than Incubus

Faith No More (photo: Dustin Rabin)

What do you do when one of your favourite bands returns after a nearly two-decade absence to record a new album? Well, for starters, you hope like hell that it isn’t a complete train wreck. In the case of weirdo rockers Faith No More, their first album in a long, long time, Sol Invictus, was filled with expectations from the band’s super fans, three of which were involved in our latest Album Club discussion.

While Rice and Bread co-founder Jason Schreurs and contributor Greg Pratt have followed the band for as long as they can remember, we actually found another super fan in This Sandwich, That Beer‘s Kevin Wood. And while expectations were pretty much through the roof for those three, we balanced out the fanboy quota with two casual fans, Rice and Bread co-founder Megan Cole and contributor Blake Morneau, fired up Sol Invictus and hoped for the best.

The Album Club:
Jason Schreurs, Rice and Bread Magazine co-founder
Megan Cole, Rice and Bread Magazine co-founder
Greg Pratt, Rice and Bread Magazine contributor
Blake Morneau, Rice and Bread Magazine contributor
Kevin Wood, This Sandwich, That Beer founder

The Album: Faith No More - Sol Invictus (Reclamation Recordings/Ipecac Recordings)

Jason: So, it’s Faith No More’s first album in nearly two decades and whenever this happens to bands, and it happens often, you’re always worried that it’s going to be a total flop or something, and in this case, I’m stoked. I think it’s really, really good. How did you guys feel about it?

Greg: I’m not sure how I feel about it, exactly. Jason, you gave it a glowing 10/10 review somewhere and I was surprised at that because I’m a huge fan, a huge, huge, huge fan, and the expectations were tricky, when a band comes back you’re worried whether it’s going to be good or bad. And this album was pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to sound like, but that was a bit disappointing for me, in a way. So it sounds awesome, but it’s maybe a bit too predictable, and not enough King for a Day and too much Album of the Year or something.

Kevin: My opinion is similar to Greg’s. I wouldn’t say my expectations were overly high after such a long lapse. My theory on this album overall is “it’s a grower, not a shower,” because on first listen I wasn’t overly impressed, but as I’ve gone through it more it’s definitely growing on me. But I also think that other than pre-Angel Dust, it sounds like a collaboration of all three of those later albums, so Angel Dust, King for a Day and Album of the Year. I’m picking up that vibe. There are some hits on here for sure, but also some uninspiring songs as well.

Blake: I only have a passing familiarity with Faith No More. I’m a big Mike Patton fan; I listen to a lot of Mr. Bungle and that weird Italian pop album that he did. So I don’t have as much familiarity as you guys, but I had a lot of fun listening to it. It made be feel kind of dumb, to be honest, because I couldn’t figure out why I liked listening to it. It was interesting… “a grower not a shower” is a good way to put it, Kevin, because the first couple of times I just glossed over, but the more I listened to it, the more there was to be interested in.

Megan: I had zero expectations when I listened to this album because basically my whole Faith No More knowledge came from Jason. I maybe knew one or two songs of theirs before him and I met. My initial response when I heard this was that it sounded like Incubus, which I don’t think Jason was very impressed with me for saying… [laughs]. But it did! I knew Incubus when I was in high school, so I guess there was a lot of Faith No More influence in Incubus’ music. But I enjoyed listening to this album and the more we listened to it at home, the more I liked it.

Jason: For me, I’ve listened to it a lot. I had to review it for another outlet, so I put it on and listened to it over and over again. And you’re right Kevin, the more you listen to it, the better it gets. My worry was that Mike Patton, well, he’s not getting any younger and he’s done a lot of crazy, crazy stuff over the years, so I was a bit worried that his vocal performance wouldn’t be up to snuff, but his vocals on this album are probably some of the best he’s ever done. There’s songs on here where it’s like, “What the hell is going on there?” And sometimes Faith No More, for him, is a bit more by the books or straightforward in some ways, compared to his other projects. So I was really impressed with his vocal work on this album.

Kevin: Yeah, that was my biggest takeaway; song to song, Patton really was the shining part of this album, and maybe that goes to show that he’s been working hard in the music industry between Faith No More albums, whereas, not to say that the other guys haven’t, but you don’t hear as much from those other guys as you do from Patton. He comes out as the cream on top of this album, for sure.

Greg: I love Mike Patton. I think he’s one of the best vocalists in heavier music, for sure. I do think sometimes he just goes on and on and steals the show sometimes, but this was good in that it was a little bit restrained and a great performance. Everyone in this band has always been incredible. I guess my disappointment, if you can call it that, is that I think they are one of the greatest bands of our time, so how do you come back after all of these years? I think whatever they did, I would have been a little bit underwhelmed because I want it to be absolutely life-changing. Which is a bit much to ask of a band [laughs].

Blake: Speaking of weird band connections with the Incubus thing, it reminded me a lot of a metal-y The Tragically Hip [laughs]. The band is super tight and they’re doing their thing, but there’s a guy there in the middle who’s just making it all happen. The songs are interesting and lyrically there’s some crazy shit going on here. It’s just really reminded me of the experience of listening to a new The Tragically Hip record.

Greg: Blake, that is pretty much the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life! [Laughs]

Jason: Obviously we have some The Tragically Hip haters in the house. Megan, not knowing Faith No More very well and being more informed on Brandon Boyd of Incubus, what did you think of Mike Patton’s vocal work on here?

Megan: I like his vocals. When I compared the band to Incubus, it’s loose, because really the vocals and stage presence are totally different. I almost prefer Mike Patton as a frontman to Brandon Boyd, and my teenage self is kicking me in the head for that. But Patton is just a wild man and he brings that to his vocals.

Kevin: All in favour. Patton is better than Brandon Boyd [laughs].

Faith No More (photo: Dustin Rabin)

Jason: One of the things that struck me about this album is there are a lot of cool songs on here. Like this song “Black Friday,” who other than Faith No More could pull off a song like that? It’s just the weirdest combination of different styles of music. There’s no other band that can write songs this weird, is there? Maybe The Melvins? I don’t know.

Greg: I agree. I feel like everything I have said has been negative so far, but let the record show, Faith No More are great and this album, compared to any other band’s album this year, it’s probably going to be better. It’s just that how do you ever live down a spree of albums that they had? How do you ever live up to that again? But, yeah, it’s an easy album to listen to. King for a Day, that’s a tough album to put on. I love it and I think it’s brilliant, but you have to be in the right mood, like a really strange mood. But this one I can put on while I’m working and tap my foot to it, even though it does have the weird element to it, it’s pretty streamlined, too, which is good and bad.

Kevin: Back to Greg’s point about how do you come off a run of records like the ones Faith No More released, and even though I think they already did release anthology records, this new album gives me a feel of almost an anthology of the records before it, even though they are new songs. There’s so much of each of their records in here, whereas the other ones were so much defined by their own sound. A couple of standout tracks for me here were “Sunny Side Up,” which is a bit silly lyrically, but it’s a really interesting sound. On every Faith No More album there’s always that one song that’s just a little extra odd. And on this one, it’s that track. So that really stood out for me.

Blake: I agree, Kevin. “Sunny Side Up” was the one I listened to most. On the first run through I did, after smoking a joint, that was the song that grabbed me. And that’s the one I kept gravitating back towards. And what the hell is going on with the lyrics? What’s with the leprechauns and Lucky Charms?

Megan: I can’t say that I know the names of any of the songs. But I could name an Incubus song if you want?

Jason: No. We won’t make you do that. I agree with Kevin, wholeheartedly. I kept thinking, “Oh man, this song sounds like something off Angel Dust. Oh, this sounds like something off King for a Day. Oh, this totally is Album of the Year.” So I wonder if that’s something the band preconceived going in. Like they said, “Let’s try to write the best of what we do and put it all onto one package.” Although I can’t see them doing that; they’re not the kind of band that would preconceive anything. But it’s really cool how it turned out.

Kevin: If that was the intent, was it, “Hey guys, let’s write the best of what we do,” or was it, and I hate to give flack to the band, but was it easier to just do a bunch of stuff that they’ve already done, rather than to try something new? I’ve always thought with every record Faith No More have put out that they were always aiming for something new; not breaking their mould completely, but definitely redefining their sound. Because one thing with Faith No More, as long as they’ve been around, they never sound dated.

Jason: Maybe we should give them some slack. They were gone for 13 or whatever years, so maybe this album is their way of getting back into it again.

Greg: Yeah, it’s an awesome album and any complaints that I have come from the fact that this is such a huge, important, great band to me ever since I was a kid, from like 1989 or something. I’ve liked them forever, so it’s a tough one when a band comes back like this. I certainly don’t think they flopped or fell on their faces or anything. I just think my own expectations were pretty much impossible to live up to. But it’s a good album and I’m curious to see how it grows on me. I’ve listened to a lot and we’ll see how I feel about it a month, or six months from now; I’ll probably like it a lot more, like I did with Album of the Year.

Jason: With Album of the Year it took me at least five years to start to like it, and now I love it.

Greg: Yeah, it’s the Helmet Aftertaste syndrome [laughs].

Kevin: Even within the week and a half of me listening to it, it’s already improved a ton, and especially since I heard the song “Motherfucker,” because that didn’t give me very high hopes. I thought musically it was interesting, but lyrically it was terrible. So when that was my first taste of this album, my expectations went down a bit, but after hearing the whole album they went back up again.

Jason: As the two people who don’t really follow this band too much, Blake and Megan, would you guys recommend this album to other people?

Blake: Absolutely! Anyone who likes music should listen to this record. Faith No More is an intimidating band, and you guys clearly know their stuff. The people who like Faith No More love Faith No More, and it can be intimidating for that reason. But if you just like music, you should listen to this record.

Megan: I’ll just say I’d rather listen to this than the new Incubus!

Kevin: Put that on the album cover! That’s the quote, right there.

Faith No More‘s Sol Invictus is available May 19 on Reclamation Recordings/Ipecac Recordings.