Album of the Year (Faith No More album)

Album of the Year
Studio album by Faith No More
Released	June 3, 1997
Recorded	1996-1997 at Brilliant Studios, San Francisco, California
Genre	Alternative metal, experimental rock, alternative rock[1]
Length	43:04
Label	Slash
Producer	Roli Mosimann, Billy Gould
Faith No More chronology
King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (1995) Album of the Year (1997) Who Cares a Lot? (1998)
Singles from Album of the Year
"Ashes to Ashes" Released: May 19, 1997 "Last Cup of Sorrow" Released: August 5, 1997 "Stripsearch" Released: November 11, 1997 "She Loves Me Not" Released: canceled

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	(B)[3]
Pitchfork Media	(2.4/10)[4]
Rolling Stone
Spin	[5]

Album of the Year is the sixth, and to date last, album by Faith No More. It was released on June 3, 1997, and is the only album to feature the band's current guitarist Jon Hudson.

During touring in support of Album of the Year, Faith No More frequently wore suits during performances, a trend which 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,^[6] which was a fan controlled site prior to the band reformation in 2009.^[7]

The first pressing of the Australian version included a bonus remix disc.

Album of the Year is the last album to be produced by the band before their break-up in April, 1998. Although critical reception was somewhat lukewarm upon release (the band members themselves were thought to have been unhappy with the end results, hence the ironic choice of title), fan reaction has grown more positive during the years after the break-up and some consider it to be one of the band's most 'underrated' releases.

Release and reception

Commercial

As of July 2007, the album had sold 213,000 copies in the U.S. 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.^[8] 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 shy of two million albums worldwide.

Critical

Intitially Album of the Year was met with some lukewarm responses from critics, including the band members themselves who are said to have been unhappy with the end result. However, the album developed praise from both critics and fans in the years after the bands 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". They also noted it for being "...more straightforward musically than past releases..." The title of this album displays the band's sense of irony, as the majority of the members of Faith No More were ultimately unhappy with the outcome of Album of the Year and the direction it had taken them. A more harsh review came from Rolling Stone magazine who rated the album one-and-a-half stars out of five.

Artwork

The liner art 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, and on the photographs is Czechoslovakia's first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The use of the imagery on the album art is representative of an end to a golden age — namely, the band's.

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:

“	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, [9]

"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:

“	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 of 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, [9]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Collision"	Hudson, Patton	3:24
2.	"Stripsearch"	Hudson, Patton, 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 bonus track)	3:07
14.	"Light Up and Let Go" (Japanese 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

• Mike Bordin – drums
• Roddy Bottum – keyboards
• Billy Gould – bass guitar, producer
• Jon Hudson – guitar
• Mike Patton – vocals

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"[10]	1997	10

Chart positions

Album

Chart	Peak
Australian Albums Chart	1
Czech Republic Top 40	1
New Zealand Charts	1
German Album Charts	2
Finnish Albums Chart[11]	4
UK Albums Chart	7
Swedish Top 50	11
U.S. Billboard 200	41

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions
		US Main[12]	AUS [13]	FIN [14]	NOR [15]	NZ [16]	SWI [17]	UK [18][19]
1997	"Ashes to Ashes"	23	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. ^ Album of the Year Allmusic Review
2. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r277267
3. ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,288392,00.html
4. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20011031194017/pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/f/faith-no-more/album-of-the-year.shtml
5. ^ August 1997, p. 114–115
6. ^ "OFFICIAL LYRICS: Album Of The Year". http://old.fnm.com/lyrics/aoty_lyrics.html. Retrieved 2009-11-24. 
7. ^ "::official FAITH NO MORE site:: About FNM::". Faith No More. February 2009. http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/fnm/FNMquotes.html#1997. Retrieved 2009-11-24. 
8. ^ "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 1997 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. http://www.aria.com.au/pages/aria-charts-accreditations-albums-1997.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-28. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Faith No More - The Making of Album of the Year". Keyboard Magazine. September 1997. http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/fnm/FNMquotes.html#1997. Retrieved 2008-06-23. 
10. ^ "Kerrang! - Albums of the Year". Kerrang!. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/kerrang.html#1997. Retrieved 2008-04-08. 
11. ^ Suomen virallinen lista
12. ^ "Billboard.com - Artist Chart History - Faith No More". Nielsen Company, Billboard magazine. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.vnuArtistId=4583&model.vnuAlbumId=6753. Retrieved 2008-06-03. 
13. ^ "Discography Faith No More". Steffen Hung, australian-charts.com. http://australian-charts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Faith+No+More. Retrieved 2008-06-03. 
14. ^ "Discography Faith No More". Steffen Hung, finnishcharts.com. http://finnishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Faith+No+More. Retrieved 2008-06-03. 
15. ^ "Discography Faith No More". Steffen Hung, norwegiancharts.com. http://norwegiancharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Faith+No+More. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
16. ^ "Discography Faith No More". Steffen Hung, hitparade.ch. http://charts.org.nz/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Faith+No+More. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
17. ^ "Discographie Faith No More". Hung Medien, hitparade.ch. http://hitparade.ch/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Faith+No+More. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
18. ^ "UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts". everyHit.com. http://www.everyhit.co.uk/index.html. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
19. ^ "Chart Stats - Faith No More". chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=5034. Retrieved 2008-01-27. 

External links

• Faith No More Frequently Answered Questions

Preceded by Savage Garden by Savage Garden

Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album June 29 – July 5, 1997

Succeeded by The Fat of the Land by The Prodigy