As with the other two bands they all had one member that I considered set them apart from other more run of the mill bands - the lyrics and propaganda of Richey Edwards, the bass of Morgan Nicholls and the keyboards of Roddy Bottum. They weren't exactly a standard rock band without Roddy, in particular the rhythm section of Bill Gould and Mike Bordin were uniquely in tune with each other, but he definitely gave them something extra.
Even though I had heard 'Epic' somewhere along the line, 'Angel Dust' was the first FNM album I bought and it was one of those where hearing it as a 14 year old made it not seem as mad as it would be hearing it later on.....the innocence of youth! Still my favourite of their albums (as shown in the 'By Era' chart), repeated listens reveal plenty of things you hadn't appreciated earlier on.
In reality comparing the songs was very difficult - you had the first two albums fronted by Chuck Mosely, the breakthrough of 'The Real Thing' which was different again, 'Angel Dust' where everything took a slightly darker turn, followed by the stylistically all over the place 'King for a Day...' and the more patchy comeback of 'Album of the Year'. All had their gems, all had their detours into weird and wonderful unfamiliar genres, some of them worked and some of them didn't but they were definitely never boring.
This chart doesn't have the same depth of quality that the other charts I've compiled have had, but then there was a lot more to choose from in those cases so a slightly unfair comparison. I think they may have slipped down the pecking order from third favourite band, but there will always be a place in my favourites list for a band as awkward as I am......
1. Midlife Crisis
2. Ashes to Ashes
3. Epic
4. Ugly in the Morning
5. From Out of Nowhere
6. Digging the Grave
7. Everything's Ruined
8. Introduce Yourself
9. Jizzlobber
10. Faster Disco
11. A Small Victory
12. Land of Sunshine
13. Cuckoo for Caca
14. Ricochet
15. Falling to Pieces
16. What a Day
17. We Care a Lot
18. Last Cup of Sorrow
19. The Real Thing
20. Another Body Murdered
21. Crack Hitler
22. Caffeine
23. Kindergarten
24. Woodpecker From Mars
25. Be Aggressive
26. Chinese Arithmetic
27. Anne's Song
28. Smaller and Smaller
29. Zombie Eaters
30. R n' R
31. The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
32. Pristina
33. Mark Bowen
34. Get Out
35. Surprise! You're Dead!
36. Collision
37. Evidence
38. Malpractice
39. Midnight Cowboy
40. Got That Feeling
41. Mouth to Mouth
42. I Started a Joke
43. Spirit
44. Just a Man
45. The Crab Song
46. As the Worm Turns
47. The Morning After
48. Greed
49. Arabian Disco
50. Blood
By Era
We Care a Lot 5
Introduce Yourself 8
The Real Thing 8
Angel Dust 12
King For a Day...Fool For a Lifetime 9
Album of the Year 6
Others 2