The Album Review Club - Week #191 (page 1286) - Harlequin Dream - Boy & Bear

RobMCFC said:
Here's what @BimboBob had to say about this album.

Faith No More - The Real Thing

I suppose I should take you back to 1989, the year this album came out, to explain my choice. It was a year that saw the Tiananmen protests in China, the start of the fall of communism in the Eastern Bloc and the first written proposal for the World Wide Web. It was also the year that my Dad died. Cancer took him in a time that men didn't really mention stomach pains, whisky will sort that out, and as such probably could have been saved. He was also incredible stubborn.

To say my world fell apart might be a small understatement. A giant of a man in my eyes, responsible for my slightly, at times, odd music tastes, my love of all things curry, my love for all things whisky and my love for all things female. A man who taught me to be polite, shake people's hands when first meeting them and to look women in the eye and smile when you talk to them. A man who drove me to Manchester every Saturday he could, not a bad feat considering at the time we lived in West Sussex. A man who encouraged my own football career by driving me everywhere when I was young. He is what I have become. I was in my early 20's. And yes, my world fell apart.

I decided a few months later to get out of the village we lived in and see a bit of the world. I had already ditched my girlfriend, annoyed most of the local publicans due to my erratic behaviour and upset most members of my family. Travel light they say, and so, along with an old backpack filled with the usual things you think you might need but probably don't, I armed myself with a Walkman and five cassettes*

Obviously these five cassettes were on heavy rotation and became engrained into my brain pretty early on. I was away for a year. I visited most European countries, got refused entry in Albania, nearly got beaten up by a bar owner and his mates because I had the temerity to sleep with his daughter, I was incredibly lucky he didn't find out about me and his Wife, watched the Monaco GP from a small balcony at the end of the tunnel for free, nearly got run over after kipping in a carpark and waking to find a lorry tyre inches from my face, pitched a tent on a field only to be woken by some footballers about to start a match...and had many, many beers. Along the way the five cassettes became three. Three became two.

I then came home.

Since then this album has probably been on at least once a month. It brings back so many memories. Good mainly. It also never fails to make me smile, leap around a bit and scare the dog.

The album then.

Their third album, and Mike Patton's first. He had no input in the music at all, that was finished before he joined, so he wrote all the lyrics in a ten day period. Not bad for a 21 year old. Apparently it features metal, alternative metal and rap metal. According to my ears it's a rock album with loads of stuff going on. Searing guitar riffs, Mr Patton's amazingly ranged voice and some delicious bass.

Best played loud and yes, as I'm reviewing the cassette version you can have the War Pigs cover at the end. It's not on the original vinyl copy.

1. From Out Of Nowhere
2. Epic
3. Falling To Pieces
4. Surprise! You're Dead
5. Zombie Eaters
6. The Real Thing
7. Underwater Love
8. The Morning After
9. Woodpecker From Mars
10. War Pigs.


* points will be awarded for naming the other four albums I took with me!
Click to expand...
@BimboBob, what's your score for this?
 
This record has “Epic”; ergo already going to likely elicit a positive review from me! Met the drummer and his girlfriend in Hawaii a gazillion years ago during their heyday (might have been our honeymoon, so early 90s?) — chance meeting in a snorkel and kayak shop and got to chatting for a bit. Quiet, nice fellow.
 
Last edited:
FogBlueInSanFran said:
This record has “Epic”; ergo already going to likely to elicit a positive review from me! Met the drummer and his girlfriend in Hawaii a gazillion years ago during their heyday (might have been our honeymoon, so early 90s?) — chance meeting in a snorkel and kayak shop and got to chatting for a bit. Quiet, nice fellow.
Click to expand...
I’m hoping for many ‘epic’ puns - it is as you say an epic track.
 
Never heard these guys before.
I'm getting that 90's americano rock vibes.
 
So we have three of our five.

Along with FNM, there's the quite frankly very good Slippery When Wet and the very well produced ABC offering.

Last two are...

A DM album.
A British hair-ish bands album that sold by the millions.
 
BimboBob said:
So we have three of our five.

Along with FNM, there's the quite frankly very good Slippery When Wet and the very well produced ABC offering.

Last two are...

A DM album.
A British hair-ish bands album that sold by the millions.
Click to expand...

A Broken Frame?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top