31 DAYS OF FAITH NO MORE: “HOME SICK HOME”
Spurred by a lazy crossword clue in The Onion (36 down, four letters: “Faith No More’s only hit”), MetalSucks contributor Anso DF dedicates every single day in August to celebration and exploration of the San Francisco alt-metal greats. Here we prove that history’s greatest band landed more than one commercial hit (crossword answer: “Epic” natch), we revel in FNM’s embarrassing wealth of winning album tracks (themselves often fit for chart topping), and we dip into the staggering best of the b-sides (ditto). Along the way, we survey the context of FNM’s big break (amid similarly seminal acts Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, and Ween) to post-Nevermind, panic-based music commerce in which the brilliantly versatile, fearless powerhouse band operated until their 1998 demise. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.
Song “Home Sick Home”
Written by Patton (L); Patton (M)
Released 1997
Appears on Album Of The Year album
Produced by Roli Mosimann (Swans, Wiseblood), Billy Gould
Guitars by Jon Hudson
Key lyric “Come home/It’s been so long/Can’t hide no more.”
Single? No.
The climate A hidden benefit of listening to any band’s albums like 10,000 times is that hearing the songs in order and according to era eventually gets predictable. So to combat that, a listener can hit shuffle or do a playlist and suddenly bam the songs are heard in a different context. It’s a breath of fresh air for your relationship to those jamz, and mingling the old with the new leads to hitherto unheralded insights, i.e. the fact that Mike Patton’s comfort zone drops like an octave from The Real Thing to Album Of The Year. My voice is in the Michael Anthony range, so I struggle to sing along with verses of “Ashes To Ashes” or of the darkly curt “Home Sick Home,” the latter a slick jam I once overlooked at AotY‘s slow, subdued finale. Thank you, technology!
Awesome song elevated to supra-awesomeness by its groove. There must be a music theory-type term for a song in 4/4 whose beat nonetheless implies a waltz (3/4). Or maybe that vibe is created by drummer Mike Bordin’s choice of emphasis? Or maybe the verses’ hypnotic guitar part is the culprit, as it kinda mimics three-over-four in places? Hey smart music people, a little help?
Didja know? Album Of The Year singles “Ashes To Ashes” and “Last Cup Of Sorrow” got remixed by fancy DJs — as did projected single “She Loves Me Not” — but to me, no AotY track seems better suited to a pounding jungle redux than “Home.” Hey smart DJ people, a little help?
–ADF
METALSUCKS’ 31 DAYS OF FAITH NO MORE
23 “Home Sick Home”
22 “The Perfect Crime”!!!! (read)
21 “A Small Victory” (read)
20 “King For A Day” (read)
19 “The World Is Yours” (read)
18 “Absolute Zero” (read)
17 “Collision” (read)
Intermission “Das Schutzenfest” (read)
16 “The Last To Know” (read)
15 “The Real Thing” (read)
14 “Malpractice” (read)
13 ”Ugly In The Morning” (read)
12 “The Cowboy Song” (read)
11 “Helpless” (read)
10 “Smaller And Smaller” (read)
9 “Digging The Grave” (read)
8 “From Out Of Nowhere” (read)
7 “Last Cup Of Sorrow” (read)
6 “The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies” (read)
5 “Caffeine” (read)
4 “Falling To Pieces” (read)
3 “Stripsearch” (read)
2 ”Ricochet” (read)
1 ”Land Of Sunshine” (read)
