Faith No More Top 50

I wasn't sure whether to go with Faith No More as a top 50 given that they only had 6 studio albums, therefore the majority of their songs would end up in the chart somewhere.  But as a teenager I always considered them my third favourite band (after the Manics and the Senseless Things), so quality was never in question.

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